The Idler Wheel...

The Idler Wheel... (also known as "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do") is Fiona Apple's fourth studio album that was released on June 18, 2012 by Clean Slate/Epic Records.
==Tracklisting==
#Every Single Night 3:33
#Daredevil 3:28
#Valentine 3:32
#Jonathan 5:03
#Left Alone 4:50
#Werewolf 3:12
#Periphery 4:58
#Regret 5:16
#Anything We Want 4:40
#Hot Knife 4:02
==Album Background==
Following the delays and controversy surrounding the release of her third album, "Extraordinary Machine", Fiona Apple began recording new material for her fourth album in secret, including from her label, Epic Records. 
When asked by BlackBook magazine about when the recording sessions began, Apple remarked, "It must have started in 2008. Or 2009. I don't know! I have no idea. It's weird to think that there was 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. Where've I been? What was I doing? What was that year about?"
According to Apple: "It was very casual, and I wasn't fully admitting that I was making an album, I got to use the time in the studio to inspire me to finish other things rather than feel like I was finishing homework to hand in. It wasn't a lot of pressure. And the record company didn't know I was doing it, so nobody was looking over my shoulder."
Instead of her long-time collaborator Jon Brion, Apple opted to produce the album with her touring drummer, Charley Drayton.
Executives at Epic found out that Apple had recorded an album in early 2012, when she presented it to them.
The album was originally planned for release in 2011, but Apple delayed the release until her label found a new president in 2012, explaining that she "didn't want her work to be mishandled amid corporate disarray."
During a secret concert in Los Angeles with Brion, Apple remarked, "I can't remember any of my new songs because they've been done for a fucking year."
In January 2012, L.A. Reid announced through Twitter that new material from Apple would be released later in 2012.
==Chart Performance==
"The Idler Wheel..." peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and topped Billboard's Alternative Albums and Rock Albums chart.
==Critical Reception==
At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 89, based on 35 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, praising Apple's "magnetic vocals, the human element pulling us into these songs", adding that while the album has similarities to her previous three, it is "stripped of all her carnivalesque accouterments" and there is a new "unwavering determination and cohesion".
BBC Music reviewer James Skinner praised the "hopelessly romantic" album and her "expressive" vocals, and considered the album to be her "sparsest work to date".
Blair Kelly of musicOMH said the blame is "both roaring with rage and swooning with romance", finding it refreshingly "spare" while its focus is on Apple's "raw, rough and flawed" vocals."
American Songwriter writer Jim Beviglia rated the album four-stars-out-of-five, praising its "stark and raw" songs, its "visceral power" and Apple's presentation of "the mixed emotions that accompany the fallout of a broken relationship".
Robert Christgau gave the album an A−, calling it "damn catchy", with "few arpeggios, and not much tone color and such", and while Apple "executes simple figures and hammers thick chords, including a few boogie-woogies just to make a point", the album is "mood music."
Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A, and regarded it as "highly confessional and creative and temperamental", concluding it "isn't easy listening. But it's worth it."
Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork scored the album nine out of ten and called it "the most distilled Fiona Apple album yet, commending its "raw emotion".
Consequence of Sound called it "one of the most daring pop records in recent history", awarding it with four-and-a-half stars out of five."
Greg Kot of Chicago Tribune gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four, deeming it "more stripped down and turbulent than before", adding that "It makes for a raw, unsettling listen, tempered by shots of dark humor."
NME wrote: "The tension created by the lyrics and music is wonderful and uneasy, ensuring that The Idler Wheel... is endlessly fascinating and unlike anything else you're likely to hear this year."
Jessica Hopper of Spin rated the album eight out of ten, writing that it "relentlessly reassures us that she’s the same old Fiona, still wilding and Weill-ing out" and "the unexpected triumph lies not in the spectacle of the singer raw-dogging her emotions, but in her total command of the anarchy that results".
Slant Magazine gave it four-stars-out-of-five and called the album "her most dense and ambitious" while it remains "accessible".
Genevieve Ksoki of The A.V. Club graded the album an A and said: "The beauty of The Idler Wheel... is how it transmits each of those feelings in excruciating, frank, and lovely detail."
Jillian Mapes of Billboard wrote that although the album is "devoid of much musical flourishing", it was "absolutely worth the seven-year wait". 
The Boston Phoenix's Zeth Lundy rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of four, describing its sound as "raw and deceptively artless" and deeming it "arguably her funniest ... but also her leanest and most melodically daring."
Paste magazine reviewer Stephen M. Deusner rated it 8.4 out of 10, stating that Applies relies on the same eccentricities of her past work, and her inability to "get out of her own head — can’t even begin to write a song that doesn’t build on layers of self-conscious self-absorption and gritty self-loathing — may in fact be one of her greatest and most distinguishing strengths as an artist"; while her "overwrought" lyrics "can provoke cringes as easily as sympathetic nods", they "exert a considerable power, marking these songs as indelibly her own".
Now magazine gave the album four out of five stars, writing: "Apple's return to music is not only undeniably powerful, but Idler is arguably her best work yet."
PopMatters' Enio Chiola rated the album six out of ten, finding it "purposefully and inauthentically difficult for the sake of being difficult", criticizing the "twist[ing] [of] simple arrangements and sentiments into an unnecessarily uneasy listen...[resulting] in the record being often times tiresome and boring" and Apple's "tendency to scream". 
Chiola concluded: "There simply isn’t enough variation" on the album, but it "isn't necessarily (even at its core) a bad record."
Rolling Stone gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars, writing that the album is "rawboned emotionally" while Apple "pours out her distress on driving songs with lyrics that mix romantic poetry and therapy-speak – Byron by way of Oprah", and although the songs may "drag", her "kooky energy pushes through the slow spots."
Category:2010s albums
Category:Pop