October 4, 2005
The official version of Fiona Apple's album came out today, six months after the rough versions leaked and about two years and one month after its original release date. I love it, of course. There are a few tracks which I preferred the Jon Brion-produced bootlegs of - especially Tymps, but also the now less-breathless Better Version Of Me and the newly-stringless, less gutteral Not About Love - but overall, hearing these songs in gorgeous high fidelity is such a huge, beautiful change in and of itself that any other differences are mostly overshadowed. There's not much room for it to suffer in comparison with itself.
Her tour schedule was announced today. No stop in Dallas yet, or even Austin. I remember back in 2000, when we were shooting Lullaby, I pushed the call time back an hour on the day the tickets for her Dallas show went on sale, so I could make sure I got front row seats. I was going to buy two and surprise someone with them. That same day, her tour was cancelled. Oh well. Speaking of Oh Well, that's my favorite song on the new album. My estrogen levels are rising with every spin I give it.
Yen and I went to see Elizabethtown last night, and we both felt that it was pretty terrible. Granted, my sensibilities are not exactly a match for this sort of film. There was a time four years ago when I was a Cameron Crowe fan, and while I think that time has passed (although I'm sure I'd still enjoy Say Anything), I think even the old less cynical version of me (not that I'm cynical now, by any means!) would agree that this new film is just not good. At all.
Well, almost. While most of the film alternates between the mediocre and the downright nauseating, there is a 20 minute phone call sequence in the middle of the movie that is so magically, goofily, wonderfully, romantically exuberant that it made me feel like that old less cynical version of me all over again. It made me think about magicla, goofy, wonderful romantic things I hadn't thought about in a long time (and that, from time to time, I wish I'd never had the opportunity to forget). For that, and that alone, it was a worthwhile viewing experience - even though the rest of the movie made me want to run desperately to the Magnolia to cleanse myself with a viewing of Broken Flowers.
Posted by David Lowery at October 4, 2005 5:56 PM