2024 Soundtrack

In May I noticed that we had the family plan for Amazon Music without realizing it, so that’s when I fully became a streaming music app guy. I had used the app before when my better half was not using it, and I’d used Spotify with ads on our TV. I’m not a caveman. I just didn’t want to pay every month. I still don’t, but we have not cancelled the subscription.

One unbelievable thing about this Amazon Music experience is how the app did not already know my taste in music. I have purchased a decent amount of music from Amazon over the years, and my profile still has all of those mp3s. So you would think the algorithm already has my years of data to work with and would recommend songs based on that history. Nope! I think it has still, 7 months later, never played me a Neil Diamond song despite having purchased three Diamond greatest hits compilations, which are still in my Amazon Music library.

On the first day, I listened to an REM greatest hits album (from their IRS Records years), the new St Vincent album, and the The Last Dinner Party album before trying the “My Soundtrack” feature to see what the algorithm offered me. It played me THREE Smiths songs and one Morrissey song despite me never searching for those artists, never owning anything by them, and never clicking the thumbs up for their songs.

This year’s soundtrack is available on YouTube. Spotify. And Amazon Music.

Previous year’s soundtracks are in the archives.

1. IDLES - Gift Horse

I had a work trip to Minneapolis while I was finalizing the content and order of this playlist. On the first day, I had a nice walk through downtown to my old neighborhood, a quick look at the Spoonbridge and Cherry, a short ride on my old #6 bus, some meandering through skyways as the sprinkles turned to rain. This playlist will remind me of that day, and two nights later. Happy hour ended, local friends and peers excused themselves, and I readied myself for the walk back to the hotel in the cold with a wintry mix of precipitation. I had my winter coat, but I forgot my gloves and warm hat back at home. The only thing to keep my ears warm were my wired in-ear headphones. I hustled and made it to the hotel by track 6, even after stopping to take a picture.

2. George Harrison - Wah Wah

In my writeup last year, I wrote, “Who are you to want new music? Are you too good to go dig up the great works of the past?” That was my inspiration to listen to All Things Must Pass in January. 

3. Suki Waterhouse - Blackout Drunk

Amazon Music made me aware of Suki Waterhouse, possibly because I listen to the “Fresh Indie” playlist at times. I had no idea who she was, but the algorithm served me two singles, Supersad and My Fun, and I liked them both. Memoir of a Sparklemuffin was one of my favorite albums of the year. This song is my favorite – I love the quirky vocal melody – but check out the rest, too. 

4. Sprints - Literary Mind

This album is great. I heard about this band through a detailed Stereogum feature article, but that article could have read “This is a good Irish punk band” and it would have been enough for me to check them out. 

5. Lorde - Take Me to the River (Talking Heads cover)

From a Talking Heads cover album to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense. Did you know this song is originally by Al Green? So it’s technically an Al Green cover. My daughter and I drove together for several hours on Thanksgiving, so I made a long playlist, no special theme, some different decades and genres. I included Genius of Love by Talking Heads spinoff Tom Tom Club and she recognized it and mentioned it was still in her head the next day. A timeless groove. 

6. The Smile - Friend of a Friend

New Radiohead put out two albums this year. Good for them! It’s nice to see old people staying active. Calling themselves The Smile did trick my brain enough to accept this style of music as it is, rather than some lesser version of stuff I loved 30 years ago.

7. Clairo - Sexy to Someone

A really great song on an album that otherwise makes me sleepy. We’re getting to the time in the soundtrack where I don’t have a lot to say about the songs, so I’m going to talk about things that happened this year. I went to DC for a conference in January, brr very cold, and stayed at the Omni Shoreham. That hotel is famous for hosting the “funny” political humor piano music of Mark Russell (my family watched his PBS specials), and presidential inauguration balls. It’s a filming location of the 1987 political thriller No Way Out, which I watched a few months after my stay, wherein Kevin Costner attends the ball, quickly seduces Sean Young, and they leave together and bang in the back of a limo. That happens in the first 10 minutes! Four stars!

8. Alice Phoebe Lou - Halo

In March, Janet and I drove to Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home. We did not pay to go inside his small boyhood home because I value my hard-earned money. That thrifty instinct paid off big time when we watched a free short film in the library that showed us the interior of the home. Thanks, suckers! A highlight for me was the old water fountain in the library - call me Bobby Boucher (aka The Waterboy) because that was some high quality H2O. When we left the museum to drive to the world’s biggest belt buckle and grab a late lunch, Janet asked what she was hearing on the radio. It’s THE AGRIBUSINESS REPORT, Janet! How else are we gonna know the price of hogs or wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade if the agribusiness reporter doesn’t update us over the airwaves several times every day?

9. St Vincent - Violent Times

Later that same March, I was in Oklahoma City with the boyz to watch the Thunder take on the Jazz. I enjoyed many earthly delights, like steak for breakfast, playing HORSE in a driveway, and one of those days when you realize you have not drank any water all day because you have been constantly sipping from beer cans. I ate the biggest and best pancake I’ve ever had.

10. Fontaines DC - Starburster

It’s tough to pick one song from Romance, but I went with Starburster. The song I enjoyed most when seeing them live in October was A Hero’s Death, which I did not expect. This year I also attended concerts for Neko Case, Alvvays, and Mates of State. Ben Folds was playing a free open-air concert in downtown Pittsburgh while I was there for work. I was eating some great Thai food al fresco, and could hear him playing and tried to catch which songs were bouncing off the buildings into my ears. My coworkers and I walked the few blocks over to the show after dinner, and took in several songs before continuing to walk across the fine bridges of the Steel City. Ben Folds playing solo doesn’t appeal to me anymore, the man needs a band.

11. Mary Timony - Untame the Tiger

My movie theater app won’t show me my past purchases, so I have to look up the 2024 box office data to see which films I watched at the cinema. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. My son wanted to see them fight each other, and they definitely did. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I saw this with the same dad movie friend that I watched Mad Max: Fury Road and the John Wick movies with. And that’s it! Two visits to our town’s Regal Theater for me this year, which means I have saved my family hundreds of dollars by not joining them for viewings of The Garfield Movie, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, The Wild Robot, etc etc.

12. Haircut 100 - Lemon Firebrigade

The Amazon algorithm played this song for me. Sometimes I give it one new wave era song to play and then let the automatic shuffle based on that song play out. This is a good song to break up the playlist, right? Now we’re all set for the home stretch. 

13. The Last Dinner Party - Burn Alive

I probably heard about this band from Stereogum. I remember going to Bandcamp to give them a try, and seeing their “About” page:

We are an art-pop five-piece that drawn (draws?) on maximalism and theatricality. We like to dress up and be free with everything within our music. So imagine my surprise when I liked these guys, and listened to this album quite a bit.

14. Blondshell feat. Bully - Docket

This rocks. The app suggested a Blondshell cover of Sheryl Crow’s If It Makes You Happy and I listened to that plenty as well. A lot of the early part of this year was yelling at alipete that her ignorance of Sheryl Crow’s catalog is unacceptable. 

15. Cobrah - Brand New Bitch

This is the song that Emma Stone’s character dances to in the 3rd part of the Yorgos Lanthimos triptych fable Kinds of Kindness. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do, you have my permission not to watch all three parts of the movie in one sitting. Break it up, it’s fine. You know what I love? I love hitting my couch at 9:45 pm and turning on the TV and trying to remember if I am halfway through a movie or not. If I am not, great! I get to pick out a new movie. If I am, awesome! I already know what I’m going to watch and I’ve only got a little bit left before I’m done!

16. Laura Veirs - Drink Deep

I heard this song in the movie Hello, I Must Be Going, where Melanie Lynskey has a romance with a younger man. Three stars! It’s one of many, many movies I watched after returning from Pittsburgh with covid, and the 3rd movie in that covid watching period that featured relationships among people of different ages – The Idea of You (also three stars!), Miller’s Girl, (one star, what the hell is this neo southern gothic sexual spin on Whiplash?). All of these star ratings are taken from my Letterboxd diary. I decided I needed to track my movie history when I was searching for something fun and stupid, with nudity, to watch for me and Floyd’s joint birthday Zoom movie party. Blame It On Rio where Michael Caine has sex with his friend’s daughter, have I seen that before? I gotta start tracking this stuff. So, check me out on Letterboxd. If it’s 2.5 stars it’s meh, if it’s above that it’s worth watching, if it’s below that it’s not. Do I sometimes make little jokes about the movie in my review? I do, here’s examples:

We watched Hot Dog…The Movie for the birthday bash and while it is an important cultural document of 1984, I cannot recommend it, 1.5 stars. 

17. Fontaines DC - Favourite

It’s tough to pick one song from Romance, but I went with Starburster AND Favourite. Two songs from one artist and album on the same playlist? It’s unheard of, it’s a breakdown of norms in America. I will not go back and research, but I know I’ve had back to back songs from the same artist, and perhaps I’ve bookended a playlist with the same artist, but not this. Never this. 

18. Elastica - See That Animal

It’s never a bad time to listen to Elastica’s stunning debut album. Here’s a list of significant health care issues this year. Boy had his first broken bone, a broken arm with no complications, and he healed in time for his first summer baseball game. Total out of pocket cost for one broken arm? About one thousand dollars. From the same Sunday pickup basketball games that previously gave me a sprained ankle and a broken thumb, I got 6 staples in the top of my skull from falling backwards into the basketball pole. Then I had a pinched nerve in my neck that persisted for about 8 weeks.

19. mxmtoon - the situation

I don’t know anything about this band, but thank you algorithm for this offering. What did I read this year? I read three nonfiction books that I will not discuss. I read Station Eleven, and then watched the HBO Series based on that book. I read It Never Ends, Tom Sharpling’s memoir, because I listen to his podcast sometimes. I purchased and read Hate To Fake It To You and Blood Sisters because I know those authors personally; since I publish this very popular and successful blog I think of them as my writing peers. 

20. Oso Oso - stoke

A Stereogum recommendation, thank you website. 

21. Gus Dapperton - Everything She Wants (Wham! cover)

Didn’t realize this was a Wham! song, thank you Wham!

22. Vampire Weekend - Mary Boone

I didn’t make it to this concert because I would have had to drive to Kansas City twice in a week. Can you imagine? I am tired of this album now but we had some good times together in 2024.

23. Waxahatchee - 365

The lead single, Right Back To It, was in my head for five consecutive days and that took all the momentum away from this album for me. Then I finally picked it back up and the sound quality bothered me. At times, the vocals max out into the red. Old golden ears over here with my tinnitus, complaining about the finer aspects of sound mixing.

24. Wang Chung - City of the Angels 

This is from the soundtrack to the film To Live and Die in L.A. Wang Chung did all the music. Willem Dafoe is good at counterfeiting money, can William Peterson and Paul Reiser’s friend on Mad About You bring him to justice? I also enjoyed William Peterson in Manhunter and The Contender this year. 4 stars, 4 stars, and 3.5 stars!

25. Gene Krupa & His Orchestra - Drum Boogie

I elected not to watch any election coverage on election night. I watched Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire, where she plays a nightclub singer and sings (lip synchs) this song with Gene Krupa. A screwball comedy from Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder, looks like the whole dang movie is free to watch on YouTube right now. Four stars! Then I spent the following morning only listening to big band music. The app has never recommended another big band song to me, the algorithm has dismissed that day as a moment of weakness or a mental breakdown.

Nothing Better Than Ezra

So, I emailed Alipete about the new Vampire Weekend album, Modern Vampires of the City, secretly hoping to find another soul who didn't grasp the fact that "Diane Young" equaled "Dying Young". To my surprise, she was up for another tandem track-by-track review!

 

Let's begin! Thanks for having me back.

1. Obvious Bicycle

 

Pretty simple and a little sleepy; it's a nice start to the album. They jump right into this song, almost mid-word. It's like VW never left us!  "You ought to spare your face the razor, because no one's gonna spare the time for you" is just a dagger. I love it.

6/10

This is one of those songs that I hear 20 times before I realize I have no idea what the lyrics are, and then I try to hear what it's about and I get distracted 30 seconds in. It's a nice song that's just "there", you know? I don't like how "razor" sounds like "raisin" to my ears. (Why is this guy singing about a raisin? First horchata and now raisins? Get this foodie outta here!) But I like the lead vocal and the bridge and the way the background vocals come in at the end. 

5/10

2. Unbelievers

 

This is a song I was introduced to WHILE SITTING IN THE AUDIENCE OF "SNL." Ezra K was wearing a great suit and is a real looker. Anyway, I'm a big fan of this one. It's a needed shot of energy after the slowish start, and in a different, twee-er world, it could be a Song of the Summer. What's the instrument that kicks in at the 2:30 mark? Organ? I like whatever is happening there. We're talking religious non-believers, right? With the holy water and the fire and whatnot? I feel like this is a "thanks, but no thanks" to religion. "I want a little grace, but who's gonna say a little grace for me?" Maybe the girl he loves wants him to try to believe in something, but he decides it's not for him. And he seems OK with it.

8/10

 

10/10. 

So good. According to a Pitchfork interview:

He tells me about the lyrics to the song “Unbelievers”, which some have pegged as some kind of atheist anthem. But to Koenig, it’s a more nuanced piece about how confusing it can be to make decisions about what to believe in as a young person today, and how people with conflicting beliefs about the world interact with one another. “Even when you’re pretty confident in some things, like loving somebody,” he says, “there are still a million other things that contribute to anxiety about the future and the choices you’re making.” We settle on an encapsulation: millennial unease. "I like that phrase," he says, with a little exasperated laugh. "It's a concise way to describe a lot of the feelings on the album."

 

3. Step

 

AC Newman said this may be VW's best song to date. Some days I really like it, and other days I skip it. The rhymes are top notch, especially Alameda/Communist Reader.

7/10

My immediate impression was that this sounds like Mark Mothersbaugh's "Tenenbaums" score meets Vitamin C's "Graduation." I can't shake that initial feeling, but I still really like this song. Most articles I had read about this album highlighted the lyrics "Wisdom's a gift, but you'd trade it for youth. Age is an honor; it's still not the truth." And they were right to; it's a terrific line. 

7.5/10

 

 

4. Diane Young

 

I love it when rock songs feature brass. I love it when things sound like Buddy Holly. I love "you got the luck of a Kennedy". The voice modulation? I don't love it. BUT I LIKE IT. I find when I think I'm getting sick of this song, all I need to do is pump up the volume and I once again am psyched. The "Dying Young" thing is NOT obvious to SOME OF US.

9/10

 

Before this album came out I had decided I was done with VW, and then I heard this on "All Songs Considered" and was completely won over. VW channeling Buddy Holly > VW channeling Paul Simon. Another candidate for Twee Hipster Song of the Summer.

9/10

 

 

5. Don't Lie

 

The word that comes to mind is "pleasant." Slightly anthemic at times, but it stays pretty mellow. I'm a big fan of the drums and the organ/harpsichord. Five tracks in, and he's really not letting go of the aging theme. "Ticking clocks"? "Headstone right in front of you"?? WE GET IT. We're all getting old.

5/10

 

Yeah, quite a bit of millennial unease on this one. The way he sings "Don't lie" makes it sound like a love song, or at least a song about a girl, but then you see that the song is not about some sexy relationship and it's like, "Whoa, dude. Stop yelling at me about this." Good song, though.

7/10

 

 

6. Hannah Hunt

 

I like the way he sings it, but not the words in the chorus. "Though we live on the U.S. dollar" really rubs me the wrong way, because who says "U.S. dollar"? That is a forced phrase. But I gather this song is about a road trip with a lady, so it makes me think of Simon & Garfunkel's "America". Also, for some reason I think that some teens are hearing this song and thinking it's really profound and romantic, and that bothers me for some reason.

6/10

 

When this album first came out, some reviewer noted that the name "Hannah Hunt" was similar to "Hannah Horvath" from "Girls," so when I hear this I think of going on a road trip with Lena Dunham. Which is fine, I suppose. I'm not sure if this song is profound, but I do think it's a little romantic. And any song that name drops The New York Times is OK in my book, even if Hannah/Lena is tearing it to pieces.

7.5/10

 

Hannah Hunt is a real person Ezra is friends with, if that helps your enjoyment of the song.

 

 

7. Everlasting Arms

 

Oh, here it is. Here's VW at its Paul Simony best. It's certainly fun and poppy, but I almost always end up skipping this one.  Also, is this song about God? 

5/10

 

I would be very surprised if this song was not about God. That's one negative about this album - it has at least three songs that are fun to bounce and sing along to, but only when you disregard the fact your singing about agnosticism or millennial unease or whatever.

7/10

 

 

8. Finger Back

 

Aside from the part when Ezra starts breaking it down about Jerusalem and a falafel shop, I don't have a damn clue what he's saying. Also Jerusalem at 103rd and Broadway? I Google mapped that intersection, and it is home to a bank and a Starbucks. I don't know enough about the history of Jerusalem to understand what kind of metaphor might be happening here. That said, I do like this song.

7/10

 

I do not like the way he sings these lyrics, whatever they are. You probably just like it because he sings "hit me like a Yankee" and you have misplaced loyalties for that club. I also do not enjoy the spoken word bit about the falafel shop. If I rate a song 5 out of 10, it means I am 50/50 on its existence. I would rather this song did not exist.

3/10

 

 

9. Worship You

 

Dislike the yodeling verses, don't hate the chorus. Whatevs.

5/10

 

"Whatevs" is a good reaction to this song. I could take it or leave it, but I guess leave it since I usually skip it. Again, I have no idea what he's saying though I will assume this is religious in nature.

4/10

 

10. Ya Hey

 

People have noted that this is "Hey Ya" backward and may be some sort of weird nod to Outkast. To those people I say, "Guys, he's saying YAHWEH." Anyway, there is a lot of religion happening here -- "I am that I am" and all that -- and I LIKE it, weird computerized voices aside.

7/10

 

I love "Ya Hey". It's slightly dark, has great bass, and the Ya Hey / Yahweh lyric is the sort of cleverness that makes VW worth following. The voice modulation works best here. "You won't even say your name," Yahweh being an unpronounceable name -- it's terribly smart. But beyond the tricks and winks, I simply love the way it sounds.

10/10

 

 

11. Hudson

 

After I finish rocking along to "Ya Hey", I don't love sitting through this dirge. It's fine.

5/10

 

There is literally a TICKING CLOCK in this song. And he sings "the clock is such a drag"! So not only is this song a real snooze, but it is also hitting me over the head with the metaphor. No thanks. I will continue to skip this one.

3/10

 

12. Young Lion

 

I am always fooled into thinking that "Hudson" is the last song on the record, so this song usually comes as a surprise. Not much too it, but it's a sweet little coda.

5/10

 

I don't really consider Young Lion a song. It's a minute and 45 seconds.

0/0

Good call. Take away my points for Young Lion. I don't want to inflate the overall score.

Alipete total = 61 / 110

dn total = 64 / 110

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Idler Wheelin and Dealin

Last year, Alipete and I took three weeks to write a track-by-track review of Hospitality's debut album. It took approximately six months for us to compile the following review of Fiona Apple's latest, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.


1. Every Single Night 

This is barely a song, right? It’s more of a poetry slam with some piano tinkles tossed in? How long would it take me to learn this song on the piano? More or less than 10 minutes? Still, I like it a lot. Your enjoyment of this song is based completely on your enjoyment of Fiona’s voice, and if you care for that sound at all, you should love this.
9/10
Best metaphor: “The rib is the shell and the heart is the yolk”
 
The actual music here sounds like a child's nightmare. Eerie. You could definitely learn it in less than 10 minutes. Her voice starts so fragile, but then almost immediately she throws it into a sort of tribal yell on the "braaaaiiiinnnn." Which I enjoy. Overall, very nice, but I take off one full point for "I does what I does." That bothered me. And I thought she was saying "I want to be everything," not "feel," and I think I like my version better.
8/10
Best metaphor: AGREED, but I'd extend it to include "and I just made a meal for us both to choke on." Terrific.

Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought I’d enjoy her shouting BRAIN over and over, but I do. I really do.



 
2. Daredevil

Here’s the song I assumed was titled “Chaperone” until just now. I don’t particularly like many of the words used in this album’s lyrics – “chaperone” is the first example. But I like all of this song aside from the very short choruses containing said word. The song seems like a good version of an old burlesque show standard.
7.5/10
Best metaphor: “Say I’m an airplane and the gashes I got from my heartbreak make slots on the flaps upon my wings and I use them to give me lift”

This song is everything I like about Fiona Apple. Maybe my favorite on the album? I don't know. We'll find out! Anyway, it's all great. The drum rolling, the piano pounding, the pained shouting, the heartbreak, oh, the heartbreak. I particularly love the "Look at, look at, look at, look at me," which leads me to my candidate for...
9.5/10
Best metaphor: "I'm all the fishes in the sea." She really sells it.


3. Valentine

"While you were watching someone else, I stared at you and cut myself." Dark! Though I really like the contrast of the heavy lyrics and the upbeat, pretty poppy music. The piano is great all the way through. She's been heavy on the repetition so far, huh? "You, you, you, you." It's love; it's accusatory. I like it.  And "I watch you live to have my fun"? Just fantastic.
9/10
Best metaphor: "It's all I'll do 'cause I'm not free. A fugitive too dull to flee." Does that count?

"Valentine" reminds me of "Please Please Please" on "Extraordinary Machine". Heavy on the repetition, and fucking terrible. PPP came up on my shuffle a few weeks ago, reminded me of how terrible it was, stayed in my head for the next four days, and made me vow not to keep shit like that on hard drives. The first half of "Valentine" is fine, but when the "you you you you" part starts, my ears bleed. Metaphorically.
1/10
Best metaphor: Please don't make me listen to this song again to pick out a metaphor.


4. Jonathan

This song is not ABOUT former boyfriend Jonathan Ames, but it IS named after him! It makes sense in the same way that it made sense for her to stop drinking to punish herself for disturbing the hummingbirds in her backyard. Jesus Christ, if I'd heard that podcast 15 years ago I'd own 3 fewer albums.
5/10
Best metaphor: I hate the only metaphor I hear, "My little fists tugging on your forest chest". Ruins the song for me, actually. There is a simile in the bridge, but I don't love it either.

I like the piano on this, but that's about it. Really boring, right? The whole song is like the same three sentences repeated, and it doesn't work. Also, I prefer to think it is about Jonathan Ames. Say he did take her to Coney Island. Don't you think they'd have the worst time?
3/10
Metaphor: Agreed. And the "captain of a capsized ship" line is pretty lame.


5. Left Alone

Man, I don't know what to think about this one. It's all over the place -- the music, the singing, everything... I like the piano kicking it at the 30-second mark, but I think that is the high point. I hate the line "tears calcify in my tummy." (Tummy???) I love the line "I was still a dewy petal rather than a moribund slut." I think when I listen to this album in the future, I will probably skip this one.
3/10
(All points are for rhyming "orotund mutt" with "moribund slut." Really well done.)
Metaphor: See above re: "dewy petal."

My favorite thing about this song is that it is not the two songs before it. I’m not big on the piano riff, but I like the percussion, and her vocal work is super. I had not noticed the word she was falsetto-ing was “Tummy”, and now I like this song a little less. THANKS A LOT.
5/10
Agreed on best metaphor.


6. Werewolf

I start off unsure about this one.  She starts with what I guess is a simile: “I could liken you to a werewolf, the way you left me for dead, but I must admit I provided a full moon”. Boy, I sure to not like the “but I must admit” part of that lyric. It feels like the kind of words an amateur would add to the lyrics to fit the meter. And I am not crazy about the main werewolf metaphor, and I dislike when songwriters mention songwriting within their songs: “nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key”. (Similarly, I hate it when a movie is about a writer who has writer’s block, so he writes a new book and that book’s subject is what we have just seen take place over the course of the movie! BOO!) But by the time the playground of children kicks in at the 2:12 mark, I’m 100% on board. That unorthodox sample loop was mentioned in several reviews; I initially wrote it off, since it was mentioned alongside other sounds she recorded in DAVID BLAINE’S HOUSE, but now must admit it’s my favorite moment on the record. It’s my favorite song on the album, a really nice description of two good people who are bad for each other.
10/10
Best Metaphor: Chock-full of metaphors! The best describes his lava making an island over her, which sounds super gross the way I wrote it.

I love the first 1:20 of the song: wounded and upset, but pretty and delicate. So I'm a little disappointed when she starts doing her trademark Fiona Growl. And I like the Fiona Growl! I guess I wanted her to keep that softer sound throughout. Man, I just can't get behind the children playing/screaming. Is it the sound of the children they'll never have?? Whatever. It seems superfluous. That aside, the lyrics, and the song in general, are lovely. Also, I don't know enough about music to know when a song ends in the minor key. But I guess I get her point. Maybe.
8.5/10
I thought she was saying "you made an island out of me," which gets MY vote for best metaphor.

Well, hell. I put some research into this island metaphor, and you will be SHOCKED with what I've found.

First, let me say that the liner notes of the compact disc list every word of "Werewolf" except for the bridge in question. No wonder no one is buying CDs anymore! So I used Google to research this island metaphor, and the internet seems to agree that Fiona sings "you made an island of me". I'm hearing "over me" and you're hearing "out of me" because she's inserting an extra syllable into "of" -- more like "of-a-me" than "of me".

The good news is without that extra googling, I never would have found out about Werewolf Island:

"Werewolf Island": Eighteen-year old Lexie Woods was sent in a cruise to Bahamas to celebrate her brother’s 25th birthday. The cruise ship wrecked and went under water fast; separating Lexie and her brother Billy forever. Lexie found herself inside one of the three life boats that were tied together. The twenty four survivors were taken to the shores of a beautiful island, and they all felt lucky to have found such paradise. To their horror they soon learned it was a 'Werewolf Island' and the fight for survival began! Will Lexie fall in love with dazzling and intelligent Archaeologist student, and fellow human survivor ‘Walter’? Or will she fall in love with ‘Kassius’? The good-looking alpha male werewolf?

I am DELIGHTED to learn about "Werewolf Island." INTERNET BOOK CLUB?? My prediction: Lexie goes for Kassius, the handsome werewolf. It seems like the smart move. Your brother's dead, Lexie. Leave human life behind and form an alliance with the werewolves. Also, if this book can be published, surely I can publish a book, right? Seems like anything goes now?


7. Periphery

The second the piano kicked in, I thought, "Hey, haven't I heard this one before? Isn't this EVERY Fiona Apple song?" This song kind of stumps me. I like it fine, but I don't really know why. The music is pleasant; the lyrics are kind of interesting. But is this another song about  losing a guy? This is getting a little tedious. The yodeling at 3:50 is nice, and I like how she sings "the periphery." But I don't know. That  can't really carry a song for five minutes. I do like the line  "I don't appreciate people who don't appreciate."
5/10
Metaphor: Is there a metaphor? Is the PERIPHERY a metaphor??

I, too, think the end of this song is okay, but dislike the rest of it. I mean, she says the word "periphery" way too much, even for a song titled "Periphery".
2/10


8. Regret

I didn't pay much attention to this track for the first few weeks. I think I looked at the tracklist one day and was like, "What, which one is 'Regret'?" So I started to focus on it. Dark. Pretty dark. Pretty great. I love the lyric about how she was sick and "you didn't believe me", because I think we all have a first instinct to not believe people are really that sick, or that they are truly that allergic to dander or whatever.
8/10
Best Metaphor: I RAN OUT OF WHITE DOVE FEATHERS TO SOAK UP THE HOT PISS THAT COMES FROM YOUR MOUTH EVERY TIME YOU ADDRESS ME


I liked this from the first lines: "Remember when we argued on the concept of regret? You were an expert even then but not me, not yet." Not yet! So great. And man, oh man, that voice at like 2:30. That is some pain. Who's she singing about here? It's like a Taylor Swift lyric mystery. Also, my sister always claims to be sick, but rarely is. So I didn't believe her when she said she didn't feel well at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and then she fainted.
7/10
Metaphor: Man, I guess that has to be mine too. And "white dove feathers"? Is this song about David Blaine??


9. Anything We Want

All the clanking and jangling is nice, but musically, this song is kind of boring. Lyrically, I think it's pretty smokin' and kind of sweet. And after all the pain and heartbreak, it's refreshing... though the UFC shout-out is unexpected. Fiona seems to have found some happiness -- or is reliving an old happiness? Either way, I'm happy for her.  And when she sings "And we try not to let the bastards get us down," it just makes me think of Colin Meloy singing "On the Bus Mall," a song I like more than this one.
5/10
Metaphor: "My scars were reflecting the mist in your headlights."

I like the clanking! And the words, mostly. It's pretty sexy. I give it 9 out of 10 boners. A point/boner is deducted from her verse about pretending they are 8 year-olds playing hooky / UFC rookie. Then they're suddenly adults again, gettin' ready to get nasty. Whoops, too late, you already made me think about sex between little children! What? Chris Hansen, what are you doing here in my car? No no no - I just wanted to listen to a CD on my ride to work - I didn't have anything else planned, I swear!
9/10


10. Hot Knife

This is a fun song I hope I hear less than 50 times in my life. Don't get me wrong - if it pops up on my shuffle in three years, I'm gonna enjoy it. But if I hear it again a week after that, I'm going to consider deleting it from my hard drive. It is nice to hear a new song sung in the round - Row Row Row Your Boat seems to have a stranglehold on that genre. Maybe this will be heard around a campfire someday soon.
5/10
Best Metaphor: "If I'm butter, then he's a hot knife." Wins by default, I guess.

Maybe this is because this song review is coming at the end of a five-month process (my fault, I know) but I think I'd be happy to not hear this song again for a long, long time. Maybe ever. The metaphor is fine, I suppose, but I can't hear it in a round for 4:02. It gets to be pretty grating. Not your best, Fiona. Not close.
2/10
Metaphor: Agreed. Duh.