5. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
With seven years between 2005’s Extraordinary Machine and The Idler Wheel, patience became a core tenet of Fiona Apple fandom. Even still, it’s hard to say anyone was prepared for the tempest that is this album. Apple’s fourth record and only release of this decade contains her most incisive, clear-eyed, and ambitiously sparse songs to date. Her smoky, operatic alto is a beacon for roving inner monologues on self-acceptance in the face of sadness and pain, whether offering wholehearted generosity in the face of a breakup on “Werewolf” or attempting to decelerate the rapid-fire pace of an overactive mind on “Every Single Night.” Here, she relies on her piano as a powerful duet partner, with winding melodies rambling amid many clattering instruments. Much of Idler Wheel is consumed by a sense of isolation, but as always, in Apple’s hands, it transforms into a salve for those of us who just want to feel everything we possibly can. –Eric Torres
