The controversy doesn't keep her from becoming a very popular actress and singer: in 1991 she releases her #1 hit " Save The Best For Last."ġ971 Bluegrass-country performer Alison Krauss is born in Decatur, Illinois. Sixty-four weeks later, it rises to #1, setting a record for most weeks on the chart before hitting the top spot.ġ984 Vanessa Williams gives up her Miss America crown midway through her run after naked pictures of her appear in Penthouse. The marriage lasts six years (including a two-year separation) and produces a daughter - Beatrice Milly McCartney - and a large settlement for Mills.ġ988 Paula Abdul makes her first appearance on the US Albums chart when Forever Your Girl enters at #184. MoreĢ001 Three years after the death of first wife, Linda, Paul McCartney gets engaged to former model and activist Heather Mills, whom he met at a charity event in 1999. Released through the independent punk label Eyeball Records, it was produced by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly. MoreĢ002 New Jersey-based alt rockers My Chemical Romance release their vampire-themed debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. When Hagar gets word, he tweets Palin offering to cover the ticket.Ģ011 Amy Winehouse dies in London of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27. She blames her excessive speed (63mph in a 45) on Sammy Hagar's " I Can't Drive 55," which was playing on her radio. It was a continuous source of comfort, for which I will be forever grateful.2014 Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin gets a speeding ticket in her hometown of Wasilla. Looking back now as an adult, I realize that the album played a vital role in my development. Yet, for all of the difficulties, there was also a feeling throughout Tidal that echoed the excitement and discovery that the future would bring. Nevertheless, her delivery assured me that I would survive, even if it meant the journey ahead would be wrought with puzzles, and perhaps even a sense of bewilderment. At 18, Apple was staring back at me from the other end of childhood, warning me of the pitfalls that were yet to come. It was this sort of confusion, this inability to let go that had me so engrossed with Tidal. She wants to “walk away” from her “decaying” relationship, but she equally finds herself wanting to “save” the person that she has grown to love. And despite her young age (and innocence), her breathy Nina Simone-style vocals echo a maturity and understanding of a woman twice her age.īy the end of the record, Apple is still teeming with unresolved questions. For me, the song was about grappling with the weight of my desires, for my mother it might have been a song that captured the loneliness of depression, and I am sure that for many other listeners, it was about finding the courage to accept their silent anguish.Įlsewhere, Apple tackles female exploitation, as is evidenced by “Criminal”, a lavish track that is ambivalent about the tension between exploiting one’s self sexually, and protecting what is sacred. Tori Amos’ “Me and A Gun”), and instead opens itself up to a variety of interpretations. With its opaque and painterly lyrics, “it’s calm under the waves, in the blue of my oblivion” – “Sullen Girl” is able to elevate itself from a simple retelling of sexual abuse (i.e. Anchored by its smooth sonic landscape, and her restrained voice, it is very easy for one to grow engrossed in Apple’s intimate narrative. She wrestles with the burden of her despair and isolation, quietly hoping to be saved. In “Sullen Girl’ for example, the artist relays the traumatic experience of being raped at the young age of 12. Time and again, throughout the album, and sometimes, within the very same song, Apple reaches the brink of personal resolution, only to do a complete 180-degree turn on herself – encapsulating the fickle nature of adolescent decision making.Īt other times, she replaces her contradictory outlook with conflicted helplessness. “Don’t even show me your face, don’t bother to explain”, “go back to the rock from under which you came”, “I’ve got my feet on the ground”, and “my own hell to raise”, barks the frustrated teenager. The opening track, “Sleep to Dream”, professes this clearly. Though only 18 years old at the time of production, Fiona Apple’s Tidal is a stark, brutal, and often beautiful portrait about a young girl’s physical and emotional growth. Still, there is something deeply moving about Apple’s first release – an album fused with intricate rhythms, and righteous piano playing. To generalize about why any one piece of music would appeal to any one person, is a difficult task to reconcile retrospectively. Why was a 12-year-old boy captured by an album that seemed almost wholly obsessed with female sexual confession? Did it have something to do with my isolated childhood, or did it have more to do with the confusion surrounding my own impending sexual awakening? Perhaps these questions are futile.
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