Playlist: “Help! I’m Listening to Fiona Apple Again” 

Photo Courtesy: Vinyl Me, Please

At least once a year for an unknown period of time that can only be decided by the inner workings of my brain, I am physically, as if I have no control of my actions or thoughts, only able to listen to Fiona Apple. Something about the passion and rawness of her voice combined with the assertive power each song holds forces me into this inescapable hold. What I have noticed is that this usually occurs in times of change or realizations in which I don’t know how to process. This can most likely be correlated to the release of the Grammy award winning album “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” which came out a month into lockdown. It only makes sense that obsessing over that album when I was trying to process living through COVID-19 somehow manifested into needing to hear Apple’s voice to process anything slightly emotionally confusing down the line. Whether it’s the dolphin sounds of “I Want You to Love Me,” that guarantees my brain can’t focus on a single other thing happening, or the palpable urgency in “Oh Well,” that makes my brain feel like it’s on a run, Fiona Apple in all her musical glory has the ability to stabilize my thoughts when everything feels like it’s just a little too out of my control for comfort. Here are my chosen Fiona Apple “comfort” songs:

Oh Well 

I Want You To Love Me Shameika 

On I Go

I Know

Ladies 

Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Extraordinary Machine 

Criminal 

Please Please Please Across the Universe 

Limp 

The First Taste

Hot Knife

Drumset 

…all by Fiona Apple

For playlist, click here.

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About Zoe Woolrich 57 Articles
Zoe Woolrich (she/her) is the Editor-in-Chief of The Oracle. Over the past five semesters she has served as Copy Editor, News Editor and Managing Editor. She is fourth-year media management major from New York City. You can contact her at woolricz1@newpaltz.edu.