Extraordinary Machine is... extraordinary!

Greetings to all, and happy Thanksgiving to those in Canadia-land. I hope you're all enjoying your turkey leftovers, or at least the thought of a turkey dinner to come.

This is just a warm-up post; a little calesthenics before the work-out starts:

I picked up the new Fiona Apple CD last week, Extraordinary Machine and the title says it all: that little girl is so amazing! It blows my mind that such a small thing is capable of producing such a huge sound. I was fortunate enough to see Fiona play some of the songs of this record with musical maharishi, Jon Brion, and the performance was stellar. Although I disagree with Fiona's choice to re-produce her CD sans-Brion (after she'd completed the album under his producership), I still think the end result is brilliant. The album was produced by Mike Elizondo, known for his hip-hop work, and while only two Jon Brion-produced songs survived, the album is remarkably uniform: the whole thing is challenging and catchy and beautiful.

Now I've never been a big hip-hop fan, save the odd artist like The Roots or Kanye West, but I must say I love producers like Brion and Elizondo who aren't afraid to crossing musical boundaries and push the borders. I think both sides of the musical fence will benefit from such openmindedness.

So this post is more like a light meal. Perhaps yogurt for breakfast, or a bran muffin. Eventually I'll get into lunchtime pasta and perhaps a 16-oz steak. Sorry.