Editorial Review:Amazon.com:Tidal is the debut album by Fiona Apple, a New York singer-songwriter-pianist who was 18 years old at the time of its 1996 release. Apple is obviously talented--she has a dark, smoky alto and a knack for an arresting turn of phrase--but she's still several years away from realizing her potential. For every fresh lyric she writes ('Daddy longlegs, I feel that I'm finally growing weary of waiting to be consumed by you'), she provides two examples of embarrassingly precious schoolgirl poetry ('Adagio breezes fill my skin with sudden red,' from the same song, 'The First Taste'). She also has yet to refine her moody piano chords into actual melodies, though 'Shadowboxer' comes close.
--Geoffrey Himes
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Disc 1:- Sleep to Dream
- Sullen Girl
- Shadowboxer
- Criminal
- Slow Like Honey
- The First Taste
- Never Is a Promise
- The Child Is Gone
- Pale September
- Carrion
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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some of the best 90's music you'll find..
I still remember when this cd first came out, back in 1996 (around that time). This cd captures some of the best music in the 90's. So take a trip down memory lane and enjoy this.
Fiona's subsequent cds are also good. She is very talented vocally and with the piano.
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Her Best Album!
I just love this album...beautiful, intense and powerful. My newest favorite is Arrica's new album,La La Lost. Check her out if you like Fiona.
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Bad Girls, Broken Promises, and Berated Lovers [4.5 Stars]
Released in 1996 at the height of the female singer/songwriter movement, Fiona Apple's startling debut, Tidal, blatantly refused to be stereotyped as another "wronged-feminist" record. Not to say Fiona shies away from the topic of relationships, (some of the album's best songs deal with angry lovers, unhappy trysts, and lonely nights) she just approaches them in a unique and beautifully raw way. Throughout most of the album, Fiona's sultry alto purrs, snarls, and laments over polished piano and orchestral melodies as electric guitars and heavy drum beats bring the sound together. This interesting fusion of alternative rock and jazz creates one of the saddest, angriest, and sexiest albums of the past few decades.
To Fiona, emotion is a weapon. Showcasing this with Tidal's sinister opening, "Sleep to Dream," Apple's angry, uneven alto sneers down vehemently upon her uncaring lover, backed by ethereal beats and claps. The mood takes a somber shift as Fiona's voice changes from contempt to grief. "There's too much going on/But it's calm under the waves/In the blue of my oblivion." Fiona cries out in "Sullen Girl," a track recalling Apple's experience of being raped. "Shadowboxer," arguably one of the best songs on the entire disk, is also the most polished one. Here, Apple puts her piano to good use, while her voice moves to dangerously low octaves.
This segues into the ever-so-popular "Criminal." Fiona's confessional lyrics (I've been a bad, bad girl/I've been careless with a delicate man/And it's a sad, sad world/When a girl will break a boy/Just because she can) are amazingly complimented by the almost menacing alt rock sound. Made famous by its raunchy video, Criminal won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
After "Criminal" the album slows down. "Slow Like Honey" has Fiona's silky voice linger over a hesitant piano. Beautiful in its simplicity, this track is arguably one of the quietest of Fiona's. The album hasn't gone completely still, however, as evidenced by the up-tempo sixth song, "First Taste." Definitely the most uneven track on the album, "First Taste's" lyrics sometimes feel forced, and the vocals don't seem to really flow that well with the rest of the music.
"Never is a Promise," the next song, is pure heartache. A ballad in every unconventional way, this orchestral gem remains to be one of the most heartbreaking tracks I've ever heard. Fiona's true knack for musical poetry comes through here: "You say I need appeasing/When I start to cry/But never is a promise/And I never need to lie."
Fiona's tragic, "The Child Is Gone," is another work of sheer brilliance. The track's beautiful strings blend well with her somber arraignment, while its follow up "Pale September" continues in the same pattern, though lyrics alone give "The Child is Gone" a bit of an edge over its successor. Concluding the album is the amazing "Carrion." Uneven, brassy, quiet, loud, sexy, sad, happy, angry, contemplative, and dark, this is the best song to summarize such an amazing musical journey. Truly one of the album's best moments.
Hardly as quiet as Tori Amos's irrevocably dazzling Little Earthquakes or as screechy as Alanis Morisette's Jagged Little Pill, Tidal is a powerful debut by a talented singer/songwriter, who is stunning in not only her rawness, but also her ethereal beauty. If you're in the mood for a lush, haunting, and all around superb album, pick up Tidal. I promise you won't be disappointed. [4.5 stars]
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The Apple of my iPod.
With her rich alto voice, talents on the piano, and poetic lyrics, Apple's 1996 debut album, Tidal, remains her best album yet, in my opinion. Rich in hit singles ("Shadowboxer," "Slow Like Honey," "Sleep to Dream," "The First Taste," "Criminal," and "Never Is a Promise"), the album also resulted in a Tidal-wave of controversary following Apple's fiery comments at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards and 1998 Grammy Awards ceremonies. "Gotta love that Sullen Girl," I thought to myself at the time, and my opinion hasn't changed. There's not a bad Apple in the bunch of album tracks on Tidal:
1. Sleep To Dream
2. Sullen Girl
3. Shadowboxer
4. Criminal
5. Slow Like Honey
6. The First Taste
7. Never Is A Promise
8. The Child Is Gone
9. Pale September
10. Carrion
G. Merritt
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Apple Sauce
Have not heard much from Ms Apple except for radio play. Ordered three compact disks at once. Have been working my way thru them. Neither good or bad. Interesting production.
