Album release pushed back, New York Times article

It's safe to say that Fiona's third album will not be released until 2004.

A delay was first reported by Women Who Rock in their July/August issue, projecting the new date to be sometime in January.

Now, the New York Times has published a new article on Jon Brion, in which the reported release is February 2004. The good news is that Jon talks a little about the new album, and Fiona is interviewed as well. There is a new song called "Oh Well," and the article also implies that the third album, like its two predecessors, will have 10 songs.

New York Times: Lost in the Music

Though it's better to read the article as a whole, I will quote some of the sections relating to Fiona and her songs:



It's 1 p.m., and Jon Brion is still in his pajamas and slippers. For the past three months, Brion, Tom Biller, an engineer, and the singer Fiona Apple have been living at the Paramour. Right now, Brion is noodling at a Casio keyboard, playing along to a mix of Apple's ''Oh Well.'' ''I cried the first time I heard her play this,'' Brion says. ''We were at Ocean Way, Sinatra's old studio, and I just put my head down on the table and cried.''


...


Apple contemplated never recording another album. Then, in the spring of 2002, Brion and Apple met for their weekly lunch. Brion had recently been ejected from a five-year relationship with the comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub. Making matters worse, the breakup occurred while he was scoring Paul Thomas Anderson's ''Punch-Drunk Love.'' Rajskub had a large role in the film, and Brion spent hours watching his ex on celluloid. Now finished with the score, he was at loose ends.

''Please, please make another album,'' Brion begged Apple. ''I need work that can save me.''

Apple agreed, and Brion went to Apple's label, Sony Music, with strict stipulations. There would be no deadline. If a Sony rep wanted to check on progress, he would have to fly to Los Angeles. Brion requested renting a wing of the Paramour rather than recording at a conventional studio. The label agreed.


...


At the Paramour, the days effortlessly merge like the unchanging Southern California weather. Nine months after Apple played the first five songs for Brion, the album is maybe half-done. In the morning, Brion draws or works on his own songs. In the afternoon, he fiddles with backing tracks. Maybe around midnight, Apple will appear in sweats and bunny-rabbit slippers and record vocals for an hour.

''Jon's put in hundreds of more hours,'' Apple said one sunny afternoon on the lawn. ''If I could, I'd release this as a Jon Brion-Fiona Apple record. I keep borrowing his socks. He thinks it's because I don't have my own socks. It's because I want to be Jon Brion.''


...


Brion can't let go of his songs. Or the songs of his disciples. For more than a week, Brion toyed with Apple's ''Oh Well.'' He spent one night moving equipment to his study at the Paramour to record a guitar part. ''The acoustics will pick up the reverb differently,'' he explains. The next day, Brion discarded the guitar. Then he laid down another basic track with himself on drums. He wasn't happy with the result. ''It sounded like a metal ballad,'' Brion says. ''I fired myself.'' A call was placed to the legendary session drummer Jim Keltner.

''The song is missing 'it,''' Brion says. ''Right now, I don't know what 'it' is. When you find it, everyone's physiology in the room changes. 'It' is a real, ephemeral thing.''


...


A month later, I met up with Brion at Abbey Road Studios in London, where he was recording orchestration for Apple. He was exhausted from testing every microphone in its storied collection, cataloguing each of their shortcomings. ''If I reach a point where I want a voice to sound a little fuzzy, I'll know which microphone to use,'' Brion said.


...


The next day, a full orchestra arrived, with ''Oh Well'' first up. Brion had Apple do another vocal take on which she almost growled the lyrics. He asked the violinist, Eric Gorfain, to add an arrangement. After listening to a rough mix, he offered only a little criticism. ''Don't place too much activity around her voice,'' Brion said. ''There's nice tension in the second verse, but tension is activity that draws away from her voice, so we have to lose it.''

The next day, Brion led the orchestra through ''Oh Well'' for two hours. Midway through, Apple arrived. Painfully shy, she sat on the floor, covering her eyes and peeking through fingers as Brion conducted. Eyes closed, he entered a blissful state. When the music stopped, he flashed a beatific grin. ''I don't think I have ever seen a human being look happier,'' Apple said.

Later that night, Brion, trying to relax with a beer, was still frustrated with the song. ''I can't figure it out,'' he said. ''It just isn't all there. Every album has a problem child. Maybe I want it to be a lawyer, when it wants to be a painter.''

Eventually, Apple's release date was pushed back from September to February. If that date holds, it will be 20 months from the time Apple played the first songs for Brion, or roughly 60 days per song.



As an aside, I've also heard a little rumor that Fiona has done some work with Dr. Dre. (If this were to be true, I don't believe it would be rap vocals - most likely working on beats.) But you didn't hear that from me.

from www.fionahaswings.com

Fiona Apple's new album, Extraordinary Machine, has been shelved by Sony, according to a recent Rolling Stone interview with Jon Brion, her producer. Supposedly, Sony cannot find a single and is unsure how to promote the record. There is no word yet on how long this will take.

from Rolling Stone

Sony has yet to find the magic song on Brion's latest production, [Fiona] Apple's new record. The album has been finished for months but sits on the shelves at the label as, Brion says, execs search for a single.

"It's a done record," he says. "They'll take whatever amount of time they'll take deciding how to promote it. And who knows? Those things are a black hole."

unsure how to promote the record

Originally posted by meritocracy
Speaking for the curious, what are the titles of the two tracks floating about?

Edit: Forget it....found them.

Originally posted by Tommy Ceez
Can someone explain how you can go for a year 'searching' for a single on an album with tops 15 tracks? Are they using some sort of futuristic process to determine if there are additional songs hidden somewhere in there, or are they waiting for the American publics perception of what a pop single sounds like to change?

Originally posted by theneobez
Fuckin' Sony, just release the god damn album.

what are the two leaked songs?