Fetch the Bolt Cutters: Review
“How Fiona Apple Accidentally Delivered the Quintessential Quarantine Album”
We all have that one artist that we turn to when we need a good cry, a scream into our pillow, or an opportunity to just hang out in our “feels” for a bit. I think that I speak for everyone when I say that the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine drew us to those emotions more than ever before. It just so happened that my artist of choice decided to drop her first album in eight years on an April morning just over one month into quarantine, when isolation and uncertainty were beginning to close in.
This artist is none other than Fiona Apple, an established singer-songwriter, lyricist, classically trained pianist, and poet. You may be familiar with her single “Criminal” and chart-topping album Tidal, which were released in 1996 when she was just 17 years old. Apple is known for her low, raspy, and raw alto voice, which soars next to her piano-driven, often jazzy melodies, while her lyrics tell brutally honest tales of struggles with mental health, abuse, and so much more. Those familiar with Apple know that she’s never been one for conventional music, with each album tackling new topics and experimenting with new sounds.
Apple’s 2020 album Fetch The Bolt Cutters is incontrovertibly her most innovative album yet, both in its instrumentation and lyrics. Its title, which Apple explained in an interview with NPR means to “Fetch your tool of liberation. Set yourself free,” unintentionally resonated on an entirely different level with an audience stuck at home, learning to adapt to a new normal, and itching for freedom from quarantine. This theme of liberation is apparent in all thirteen of the resentful, impassioned album’s tracks. To me, the phrase “fetch the bolt cutters” was a call for emotional release from the anxiety surrounding uncertainty. Headphones in, volume cranked, I absorbed the 51 minutes of passionate, cathartic music that Fiona Apple gave us in one sitting. And wow, was it a lot to take in.
One song that particularly struck me was “Relay,” a percussion-driven track that opens with pattering drums, gradually building in momentum and power while Apple repeatedly sings the refrain before falling into a new, syncopated rhythm for the middle section. One interesting aspect of this track is its utilisation of both traditional percussion instruments and household objects to create intriguing rhythmic patterns.
Though it’s been five months since I heard it for the first time, I continue to find myself circling back to Fetch The Bolt Cutters for Apple’s moving lyrics and music. Every time I listen to the album, I find a new phrase of earworm-y musical brilliance or a compelling lyric worthy of meditation that piques my interest. While writing this article, I fell for the final refrain of “Cosmonauts”, which features Apple repeatedly shrieking “started off!”, draining every ounce of emotion out of two words that you would never have guessed could carry so much weight. Give “Cosmonauts” a listen the next time you’re in need of a good-old scream into the void and let me know how you feel. Fetch The Bolt Cutters isn’t just the quintessential quarantine album. Rather, it’s an album that speaks to the hidden voice that resides within each of us day in, day out. It wants to see the light of day. A good first step? Fetch the bolt cutters.