The Idler Wheel...
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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
You have to give yourself over to The Idler Wheel in a way you probably haven’t done since you were a kid, before jobs and other adult responsibilities claimed the long hours you spent curled up by your stereo speakers. It isn’t easy listening. But it’s worth it.
100
Stripped of all her carnivalesque accouterments, Fiona Apple remains as rich and compelling as she ever was, perhaps even more so.
11y
100
The Idler Wheel… is an innately private record, as Apple’s tend to be, but she has a way of drawing listeners in as she pushes them away, luring them, siren-like, into the maelstrom of her own reflection.
11y
100
After sixteen years, Apple has finally reached her megaton moment. The Idler Wheel is her ferocious eruption.
11y
90
Apple has quite cleverly developed musically in just the right way, creating something utterly distinct and different to her earlier work whilst still retaining all the characteristics that won fans over to begin with.
11y
90
On her fourth album and first full-length in seven years, she presents a stunning portrait of her interpersonal relationships that's more even-keeled than any of her past works.
90
Her use of the piano as a physical instrument is unparalleled in popular music, owing more in terms of influence to Lazar Berman or Daniel Barenboim than any of her direct contemporaries.
10y
90
The Idler Wheel is an emotional thesis that cannot be ignored. It is perhaps the most unforgettable work of her career.
10y
90
The sparse, even unprompted production only makes it richer, resulting in a fascinating unanimity of piano and voice that turns more involving with every clink, clatter, and clap.
11y
90
The Idler Wheel is Apple’s biggest statement yet, its textured, booming soundcapes finally living up to the conflict housed in her twisted poetry. It’s a tension that leaves the album swinging from the uncomfortable to the divine.
11y
90
The Idler Wheel succeeds in creating a singular world more daring than any of Apple’s previous records and one of the most daring pop records in recent history.
11y
90
On her first album in seven years, singer-songwriter Fiona refines her usual style into something simpler, but emotionally potent.
90
The Idler Wheel's spareness does lend it an insular loneliness, one that's divorced from the outside world while also being intimately in-tune with its basic realities.
11y
87
The Idler Wheel ... is Apple’s best work yet, spontaneous and so utterly unique, uninhibited and self-possessed in its sonics and language, risky and jarring, full of sharp turns yet encountering beauty everywhere, it feels like the first document to fully explore the depths of her talent.
11y
85
The Idler Wheel… is Apple’s most stripped down, musically simplistic album, but it’s no less heartfelt or harrowing for that.
85
She’s refining her outlook here, and The Idler Wheel… stands as her most concentrated and mature record yet.
84
Few vocalists can erase the distance between performer and listener as shrewdly as Apple can, and that toggle gives The Idler Wheel its strange power.
11y
83
Since there’s so little to grab onto, The Idler Wheel might be better understood as an emotional statement rather than a musical one.
11y
80
The Idler Wheel’s ramshackle, barely-holding-it-together aesthetic can’t be anything but carefully constructed, but in an artistic sense, that’s a virtue, not a vice.
11y
80
It's Apple's refinement as a writer that makes this harrowing psychodrama so gripping.
Print Only
11mo
80
It's a hyper-vivid and intensely musical affair that takes us deep inside Apple's skittish, fretful mind.
Print Only
11mo
80
Not that Apple, on this work or any other, has ever been one to shy away from the messier parts of human emotion. Her wordplay may be complex, but the metaphors she employs are stunningly effective.
80
Thankfully, Apple’s return to music is not only undeniably powerful, but Idler is arguably her best work yet. It’s strange, raw and grabs your attention the way few modern albums can.
80
It's an album that demands something of the listener, but rewards it in spades.
80
The Idler Wheel captures what’s made Apple one of the defining artists of her generation: a persona that’s reflected changing views of private versus public spheres.
80
The degree of difficulty she is attempting is extremely high, yet the results are often startlingly good.
80
The Idler Wheel… is her most adult work yet, a record that’s underpinned by the fundamental grown-up characteristic of embracing one’s own ridiculous, stubborn dysfunction because, Hell, what other option is there?
11y
80
The tension created by the lyrics and music is wonderful and uneasy, ensuring that ‘The Idler…’ is endlessly fascinating and unlike anything else you’re likely to hear this year.
11y
80
The unexpected triumph lies not in the spectacle of the singer raw-dogging her emotions, but in her total command of the anarchy that results. The demons remain, but her talent prevails.
11y
70
Sometimes the songs drag ... But Apple's kooky energy pushes through the slow spots.
60
Whipping Cords seems to require far too many listens to really reach that ‘viola!’ moment—sure to result in exhausted listeners who try desperately to love the record as much as they think they should
11y
I listened 5 times in a row to prepare for the new album, and that definitely helped since this is way out of my lane of interest
Albums like this are VERY rewarding for being patient, and open minded. This album is a gentle, but powerful listen. It’s hard to really explain because I’m not used to loving this kind of shit so much
TRIGGER WARNING: There might've been a slight usage of the P-word in this review, please proceed with caution.
I've heard Fiona's name get thrown around soo much, but I never actually listened to any of her stuff. So it was about time, I decided to start off with this album, because why not? It's the highest-rated one, and while I don't trust average scores, I was hoping for it to be good... so was it?
In my honest humble opinion, no... Not really. Was it bad? Not necessarily, but I wouldn't ... read more
Fiona Apple is someone who's music i am not familiar with at all. i had very little to expect when coming into The Idler Wheel, other than general hope that i'd enjoy it. and wouldnt you know it, i do! i enjoy this album a lot! now this isnt normally the kind of music i listen to or review often, as usually singer-songwriter kinda folkier pop stuff just isnt my cup of tea. my ADHD attention span just cant fuckin pay attention long enough to appreciate a lot of slower, more ... read more
This reminds me of Mitski in its consistency: one massive standout (Hot Knife), everything else sitting at a very good level and one track below the rest (Largo).
Favourites: Hot Knife, Anything We Want, the other ones
Least favourite: Largo
Everything just sounds so good I can't describe it but everything is so omg like slay queen
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Track List
| 1 | Every Single Night 3:29 | 95 |
| 2 | Daredevil 3:28 | 92 |
| 3 | Valentine 3:32 | 94 |
| 4 | Jonathan 5:03 | 90 |
| 5 | Left Alone 4:50 | 93 |
| 6 | Werewolf 3:12 | 93 |
| 7 | Periphery 4:58 | 90 |
| 8 | Regret 5:16 | 90 |
| 9 | Anything We Want 4:40 | 91 |
| 10 | Hot Knife 4:02 | 95 |
Total Length: 42 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
| #1 | / | Spinner |
| #1 | / | Stereogum |
| #1 | / | TIME |
| #2 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #2 | / | Entertainment Weekly |
| #3 | / | AllMusic |
| #3 | / | Pazz & Jop |
| #3 | / | Pitchfork |
| #3 | / | PopMatters |
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12h
Would love to see comedic tags come back without subjectivity I would love to see "I aint reading allat" tagged here
Added on: April 2, 2012