Fiona Apple's Tidal (1997): A Track By Track Analysis
A dissecting of Fiona Apple's debut album. "I've been a bad, bad girl/I've been careless with a delicate man."
Fiona Apple’s 1996 debut album, “Tidal” shocked the music industry exposing the honest lived truth of Apple but also putting the experiences of many other teen girls into the spotlight. She projected and expressed what many men both in and out of the industry could only imagine coming from a woman with years of writing ability and couldn’t imagine coming from their younger sisters and daughters. Apple was one of the first comings of “girlhood” in mainstream media. “Tidal” explores what it's like to be 19 and the sexual fostering, citizenship, and socialization of the teenage girl.
Sleep To Dream:
The album opens with hollow earthy percussion followed by one of the more raw and sandpapery vocal performances of the tracks. Apple’s tone is nothing short of demanding and grown. It’s not straight yelling but it asserts itself. The faint strings that follow allow the minimalist backing to highlight the vocal control that she has mastered preluding to later more jazz-influenced tracks like “Criminal.” The song also later introduced the piano sound which stays consistent throughout her career as part of her signature. Whereas Apple’s discography is often characterized by her heart-wrenching confessionals and disturbingly real subject matter, she opens up on something a bit different. “Sleep To Dream” introduces the audience to not only the album, but Fiona Apple herself, and it doesn’t introduce her as a weak battered girl. It defines her as empowered with strength within herself to grasp enough control to pull away from an unhealthy relationship. The tragedy that occurs in much of her life and by proxy through her work does not define her as a tragic figure but as a strong one who has honed her talents and sensitivity to produce a new standard for songwriting. The instrumental toward the end involves some aural slides which build a growing tension in the belly of the song. It creates a new dissonance and wades us out into the depths of “Tidal” as the music fades out to what sounds like the wind whistling.
Sullen Girl:
A sudden change in pace, “Sullen Girl” opens us up to a sweeping piano ballad. The lack of any other backing creates the feeling of complete isolation. Even as the percussion and strings return, it feels as if Fiona is alone. The song itself feels like floating underwater. It’s cold and desolate. This song hones in a lived experience of Apple from when she was 12 after being raped; “But he washed me ‘shore/ And he took my pearl/ And left an empty shell of me.” She described herself as cold and shut off from everyone else. Her resolve and ability to turn traumas into works of art is phenomenal and the lengths to which her art can touch people is expressed through her legacy. “Sullen Girl” swallows you whole and leaves you stripped of your dignity and solus.
Shadowboxer:
Apple introduces another quality of her music with a smokier jazzier sound on the piano and hi-hat. It’s dangerous and tempting but much of her later vocal line adds a brightness that allows it to sit alongside the prior two tracks while serving as a warning for what comes next, “Criminal.” The song touches on wanting and flirtation at one’s own expense. Apple recounted the inspiration for the song in a 1997 NUVO interview where she described a past friendship. In this friendship, she discovered quickly that they were only friends so that he had the option and accessibility to make a move on her if he felt like it. Even when she felt that it was wrong she looked forward to his flirting inspiring this track’s themes of self unraveling. The song also highlights the hollow vocal sounds and furthers the exposure of Apple’s technical vocal abilities. It follows a steady thrum that carries the listener through the percussive bounce and creates a suspended tension causing the listener to hang off of Apple’s every word. Dynamically it hones in on Apple’s erratic vocal melodies with minimal large changes to the instrumental outside of the additions of strings, new brighter chord changes, pregnant piano crescendos, chimes, and a light twinkling pluck over the verses.
Criminal:
The most well-known track on the album, “Criminal” is Apple’s smoky jazz sound at full tilt. The song opens with a rumbling bass line and piano before setting into a natural percussive groove just before Apple’s voice comes in with the iconic line, “I’ve been a bad bad girl.” “Criminal” exists as a curious outlier in the album. It’s laced with heavy irony while also staying in the honest personal confessional style of Apple’s art. What she expresses in the song is a true personal point of view riddled with self-loathing and doubt in the name of chasing after a man. At the same time though, she mocks this caricature of the “love slave” with a deep set sultry tone which is just too thick to be the real intention of the song. It’s rich and commands power through sound. It also ends with a unique eastern-influenced flute melody over top of a typical Fiona Applen instrumental that loops as an earworm until it moves through dissonant scales before resolving itself on a dangerous foreboding ring.
Slow Like Honey:
After the rock-jazz fusion of “Criminal”, Apple keeps up the sultry but slows the pace back down. The album overall is unfortunately pretty front-loaded and this marks its downturn. It’s smooth and soft and much of its parts slur languidly into one another. While the song is pretty and polished, it doesn’t quite level out with the rest of the album thematically. “Slow Like Honey” does introduce a younger sound to Apple which is often overlooked by her supposed “maturity” which is aided by her deep brassy voice and jazz influence. She is singing not just about her depression growing up but also about how she will become famous and all the people in high school who were mean to her would regret it. While the actual concept in writing might sound like teen pop cheesiness, Apple gives it a burnished spin. The vocal melody also features quick bright walk-ups, something not often heard in Apple’s music which stays in a good comfort range that she can easily emote through. It also involves running ad-libs tracked over the instrumental and melody, fitting much more into the modern female popular music standard, unlike the rest of her work.
The First Taste:
The song opens desolate, honing in on a younger fae-like vocal tone from Apple supplemented by rung-out piano chords. It then goes into a much more buoyant bright percussion section, something completely unheard of in the tracks prior. Overall, it leans closer to a poppier sound perhaps even influenced by some bossa nova. This is the least heavy song on the album, singing about a fantasy relationship that cannot happen without the first admission of love. Her trailing vocal riffs are the highlight of her vocal performance on the track. It also hones on a different type of sultry quality. Instead of the prior thick smoky instrumentals, we’re given a new lighter and romantic allure through the musicality.
Never Is a Promise:
“Never Is a Promise” opens with a standard sweeping ballad instrumental through its mini crescendos on both the piano and strings. Again, Apple used double-tracked higher harmony and taps into the higher airier vocal register. This song is much more delicate and precious than anything else heard on the album. The song was one of the songs included in the set of three demo tracks sent to Andrew Slater of Sony Music while the other two remain unreleased. This song is also fueled by greener trauma than the earlier tracks. Apple wrote this song after finding out the boy she gave her virginity to was interested in another girl. Her voice both trails and goes through great swathing movements while also honing in on some of the natural percussiveness of the piano at times and singing in tandem with it. It’s tragic and soft, and it feels like it might break if you touch it.
The Child Is Gone:
Bright and open while also still re-introducing the rumble from earlier in the album, “The Child Is Gone” brings us back to the beginning after the interlude of “Slow Like Honey”, “The First Taste”, and “Never Is a Promise.” The instrumental is punchy and Apple pushes the song forward through large vocal dynamic changes accompanied with ambient strings. In this track, she copes with growing older and acknowledging that she can no longer hide from reality. “The child is gone.” There’s a distinct sense of powerlessness and desperation. It also highlights one of the primary themes which is growing up and maturing against one’s own will.
Pale September:
This song opens on a haunting almost horror score adjacent chord repetition although much more soft and melodic. It’s eerie and dank. Apple plays with the idea of time and loss through seasonal metaphors in her lyrics. This song is another gentle outlier separating itself from the main showstoppers in her work. There’s an ambient warbling sound that occurs midway adding to the similar aural ominous touch. Apple seems to trade the greater dynamic movement often throughout the song with the instrumentals allowing herself to sit in a more comfortable trailing vocal space. The double-tracked harmonies in the second half are the highlight of the track. They define the track even more from other songs in the album and introduce yet another new sound that she’s capable of.
Carrion:
“Carrion” invites the listener into Apple’s darker sound but this time from a lighter much more acoustic perspective. Out of nowhere, out images an abrupt wide sound from the tight and
subdued one which opens the track. While the instrumental shifts out of nowhere, Apple’s voice still seems to underlie it albeit much more freely before settling back into the prior groove with much more comfort. Apple lyrically grapples with the loss of feelings for a lover and the guilt that plagues her because of it. It’s certainly one of the stranger tracks and a bit of a confusing closer to the album considering it shares very little similarity and cohesion with anything else on it. It doesn’t quite punch in the way that prior tracks did and doesn’t sweep over you either. It also introduces some riffing electric guitar and an exceedingly maximalist soundscape over a desolate vocal melody. It has the potential to be something breathtaking but it doesn’t seem to have been treated with the same polish as the other tracks.