Fiona Apple: Extraordinary Machine 2LP 180g Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This reissue spreads the album over two 180g LPs. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album, and Rolling Stone later named it the 49th best album of the 2000s.

This edition

2LP set
180g vinyl

About the album

Fiona Apple has never been one to rush, and this album took its time in the most interesting ways. She started it in 2002 with her old friend Jon Brion, part of it in a wing of a 1923 Los Angeles mansion built by silent film star Antonio Moreno, then remade most of it over 2004 and 2005 with Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew.

Brion's versions of the title track and "Waltz (Better Than Fine)" bookend the record with their wind-up-toy orchestras and music-box charm. In between, "Get Him Back" and "O' Sailor" roll on her rumbling piano, "Parting Gift" is just her and the keys, "Better Version Of Me" struts, and "Not About Love" builds from a nervy shuffle to something close to a stomp. "Window" and "Please Please Please" show off her playful side, and "Red Red Red" is one of her most quietly beautiful songs.

In 2020 Rolling Stone added it to its 500 greatest albums of all time, and it still sounds unlike anything else from its decade. It took the better part of three years from first note to finished record, which, by Fiona Apple standards, counts as getting a move on.

Also at Kops: more Fiona Apple on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter