Tidal

This is such a lushly produced album, and it holds together perfectly. The vocals & arrangements are deceptively soothing & lovely in light of the ferocity of her lyrics. She got more adventurous in her later albums, but this might be the best one to just put on and let the songs envelop.

I need another listen, it definitely surprised me.

I liked this but didn’t love it. I really like her voice and her style is so distinctive, and it’s great to hear it so fully formed on this early album. It lacks some of the better songs of her later albums, and I prefer ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ for example

Much like Björk's Debut, the album showcases an artist whose potential and voice has yet to be fully realized and matured. Not a bad album by any stretch, and incredibly impressive for her age at the time, but her later work is so so much better.

I mean it's her 3rd best record.

From the first drum beat on the first song, I have full body chills. Tidal has one of the best album openers ever. I got this CD in 7th grade from Columbiahouse for a penny, and it has become one of my favorite albums of all time. Early in 9th grade, when I was still trying to make friends, I heard someone playing "Never is a Promise" on the piano in the band room. I ran in and started singing along. I made a great friend that day. it is still one of my favorite memories of my adolescence. Fiona Apple is a generational talent, and I am so glad to be her fan.

2.5/5, prob bi dao onako 2 da ne racunam da ce doci neki ono actual garbage koji necu moc slusat, ovo je bilo listenable just very forgettable and unexciting. actually dajem dva ipak

Girl wonder, Fiona Apple was a bad ass woman from the day this album came out. Super soulful beyond her years. Wouldn't you love to the the record exec that discovered her.

Starts ok then moves swiftly into soulless tedium.

it was pretty good, not very memorable

Just a lovely, lovely album and one I shall be returning to. What a delightful voice and great songwriting.

This one goes on the growing pile of albums I admire but don't love.

Loved this. I haven't enjoyed the last dozen or so albums, but this one is a perennial favorite. I've enjoyed her 1st 3 albums quite a lot, although they each took multiple listens to realize and enjoy. Makes we wonder about some of these other albums I've panned recently. Maybe they just need more listens. This one is great for the chords, the progressions, the orchestration, the lyrics, the vocals. Just an all around amazing album.

Absolutely awesome album. Beautiful, angry, tuneful, slow, fast, smart, emotional.

Feels like very generic modern jazz

This album is occasionally really quite good, but then at times, particularly the final two tracks, it loses itself with long, boring moments that seem to trudge along before fizzling out. Outside of those moments it's quite pleasant, but it gets dragged down a bit nonetheless.

Sounds like 90s singer/songwriter slop

I remember Criminal being a hit in the mid-late 90s, though I honestly didn't really care for the song. For that reason I never really gave Fiona Apple a second look. Though I'm still not a fan of Criminal, I really enjoyed her musicality elsewhere on the album, particularly in the songs The Child is Gone and The First Taste. Her voice is really impressive.

I’ve been looking forward to listening to Fiona for a while and she did not disappoint. Her performances are entirely captivating, the lyrical focus and introspection mature and wise almost beyond belief, and a magical mix of varied jazzy and rock tense production backs her up. What more could you want? I’ll be highly anticipating more listens and her work that came to follow. 2 listens Favorite Tracks: Criminal, Shadowboxer, Carrion, The First Taste, Sleep to Dream

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Having trouble moving on to the next album.

“Criminal” is a great song and I liked several other tracks.

Oh dear. 1996 probably saw a few important singer songwriters emerging but Fiona Apple isn't one of them. Never heard of her, probably because her music has an 'also ran' air. Nothing special, entirely inoffensive.

Like the way the vocals are mixed. Piano and string combinations work realy well. Cool voice. Nice songwriting (even tho i feel like Some of the songs are not realy leading anywhere). Album lacks enough memorable moments to give it 4 stars, so a high 3 stars it is

I've never listened to Fionna Apple before but knew her by name. I really enjoyed this album. She's incredibly talented and the music was very diverse and interesting.

Alanis Morissette Tori Amos and a nuance of trip hop

Great 90s

Strong vocals. The Disney princess I always wanted

Completely new to me and shows how some people can be huge in America and make very little impact in the UK (or maybe I just have missed it). Anyway, this started really well but I felt trailed off…. 2 stars

The Good: Tidal has great lossless music! The Bad: The catalogue is limited... for now The Ugly: Realizing we are not comparing streaming services... Fiona Apple... how can a person song in such a fashion that it sounds off-key while it is perfectly on key? It's a skill few possess! I've listened to this album probably 4 times in the last week... I don't know what to think about it... yet I find it mesmerizing. Maybe the period has something to do with it? I would argue that Sarah McL was the greatest of the mid-90s female artists... though Alanis M took the crown, for obvious reasons... which leaves us with the Fiona A's of the world... and there were several... just don't know who spawned the rest? Anyway, while digging into the list of albums I've already listened to, it turns out that Fiona had another one, and I kinda liked that one... This Tidal album... I fear that it is becoming a favorite of mine to play while I am just in need of something lovely... Really want to give it 5*, but will have to drop it down to 4* for now... as it's not stellar... then again, I did give OrangeJuice a 5*...

Excellent- love Fiona Apple, and she only gets better. I think her latest album is easily a 5, but this is a standout 4.

Intricate, poetic, creative and just beautiful. This project is one I absolutely love, made by a highly intelligent visionary filled with talent. You have no idea how happy I am to finally get an album by a female artist on this thing, and especially with this being my favourite Fiona Apple project! I am so pleased! Apple's songwriting here (at the age of 18!!) is absolutely unmatched, the best I've seen on this generator journey so far. 'Never is a Promise' is a hugely impressive song of course, but I've also been loving 'Sullen Girl' recently, which is so devastating and impactful. Not going to lie, her music was a sound that took me a while to get used to, but now I absolutely love her. If you didn't enjoy this on first listen, definitely give it another go once you've familiarised yourself.

This album should be right up my street, and for the most part, well the first half it is and then it just seems to meander and drift off with every track sounding similar to the last. Shame, don’t get me wrong it’s good but it could have been better.

хз не мое

This wasn’t a big album for me in 1996 the way it was for a lot of people. I saw the “Criminal” video on MTV and thought it had a very distinctive look to it, and the song was okay, but then it got overplayed and I started to find Fiona Apple kind of annoying. Her speech at the VMAs was labeled as crazy—as prescient truth-telling women often are, with Sinead O’Connor on SNL being the obvious example—and I basically put Fiona Apple out of the running to be one of the artists I was interested in. Having dived back into her catalog as an adult, though, I am really impressed with Fiona Apple as an artist. It is hard to believe that she recorded this when she was 18 or 19 years old. She clearly had a sound in her head that she wanted to create, and it sounded like almost nothing else on the charts at the time. It harkens back to the past without sounding particularly derivative of anything. More importantly, it sounds like somebody who knew exactly the album she wanted to make and brought her vision to life. There is something to be said for an artist who is truly an artist rather than a crafts person. An artist has a vision and is compelled to make the thing that exists in their head, even if that thing doesn't necessarily line up with what everyone else thinks they should be making. I don't automatically admire that quality. In fact, when an artist is too uncompromising, or when the thing they are compelled to create simply doesn't sound good to my ears, I have very little patience for it. “This is my vision” is not, by itself, an argument that I should like something. Your vision might suck. But there is a sweet spot where an artist's vision is not directly in my wheelhouse but isn't so far outside it that I just write it off as not for me. The artist doesn't have to compromise necessarily; they just have to give me something to grab onto. And when that happens, the challenge of coming to appreciate music that is not my usual cup of tea is part of the pleasure. I have to stretch a little to meet the artist, and if I do, I come away with a slightly different idea of what I like. I saw where a tech bro tweeted recently that music had been “solved” because AI can tailor music exactly to any individual listener. But, even if that were true, it would only provide the listener with music that they already like. It would put out music designed to appeal to whoever the listener is at that particular moment. The best art does something more than that. It's like a fisherman getting a fish to bite. You don't put the bait in the fish's mouth; you put it just far enough away that the fish has to decide to go after it. The best artists do that with your taste. They give you enough of what you already understand to make you curious about the things you don't. In terms of albums, if the bait is too far away, I don't bite. I just say “nah, not for me” and write the album or artist off. But if the artist gives me enough of what I usually like, I will sometimes stretch my taste to meet their work. And if I do, I end up somewhere I couldn't have gotten to by myself. I end up liking something that I didn't know I could like before I gave it a chance. My tastes have expanded a little. I am, in a small way, a different listener than I was when I started. I think Fiona Apple is that type of artist and I am glad to have revisited her work after having previously written her off as not being for me.

Was surprised by quite how much I enjoyed this, especially the track Criminal. Sublime record.

Enjoyed this. Great energy. Criminal the standout track. Heard it before? ❌ Listen again? ✅ Rating out of ten? 6️⃣

This was class New to me and a very high 4. I'll definitely be listening again, along with the rest of her albums

nicht meins

Sleep to dream - 4 Sullen girl - 3 Shadowboxer - 4 Criminal - 5 Slow like honey - 4 The first taste - 4 Never is a promise - 3 The child is gone - 4 Pale september - 3 Carrion - 4

Fiona Apple is so incredible. Always offbeat, you never know what she will do.

Front to back, all 5 star songs. Unique voice, both literally and figuratively, and it cannot be understated how important that album was to so many people.

Dette var seig lytting. Albumet treffer meg ikke i det hele tatt, og med unntak av "Criminal" og "Slow Like Honey" synes jeg låtene er trege og uinspirerte. Hvorfor er alle låtene så jævlig lange?? Ikke spesielt fan av den "rå" sangstilen, og partiet rundt 1:47 på "Sullen girl" er rett og slett grusomt og trekker ned 0,5 alene. Andre halvdel er litt bedre, men ikke nok til å redde 3ern.

Husker ikke så mye av albumet, mek husker at jeg tenkte 3 stjerner :)

Likte dette. Litt dystert og melankolsk til å begynne med, men sånn er jo livet også. "Criminal" gir litt mer fart på albumet!

Noen kule tendenser, men litt kjedelig i lengden

Great album. “Criminal” is an all time great. The rest of the album is very good. Maybe not my favorite album of hers but that is a high bar.

Very talented performer, sophisticated compositions ... I just don't connect with this material. It's not doing it for me.

great album. her unique vocals and intense piano make this a very enjoyable listen

Never listened to this record from start to finish. Really enjoyed it, which didn't surprise me. I wasn't paying the closest attention as I was engaged in figuring out a new board game's complicated rules but enjoyed it a lot. No skips.

i don't know what I expected, but it definitely was not that this is very good in fact

High rating for a great debut album, and "Shadowboxer" is one of her best songs. I personally think her magnum opus is "The Idler Wheel...", but this is one hell of a debut album

The more I listen to this, the better it gets.

Really good debut. Fiona Apple’s voice is soulful, dark, and melodic. Some good songs here. I enjoyed the first half of the album better than the back half. I think I listened to Fetch the Bolt Cutters in full at one point but otherwise haven’t delved into her collection. This is a solid start.

Ok. I think there was a song in which I thought hmm that's nice. The rest is just music in the background, not bad, but not something I would intentionally choose. 2,5/5.

favs: sullen girl shadowboxer criminal slow like honey rating 2/5

Favourite Songs: Sleep To Dream Criminal The First Taste Carrion

This album moves me, deeply, each time I hear it. How many songwriters, in history, have managed to create songs of striking complexity - in their harmonic progressions and arrangements, lyrics, and melodies - while remaining accessible and emotionally engaging? What depth of character, and gravity of artistic commitment, is required for a brilliant, talented, sullen 19 year old woman, in the music industry of the mid-90s, to hold herself up, honestly, to the world, without the slightest compromise to the forces telling her what type of product the world wants her to be? These - brilliance, bravery, honesty, commitment - are the elements of Artistry. That she happened also to be a musical prodigy, is an absolute gift from the Gods for those of us who wander through the world listening.

I don’t know what it says about me that my standout track here is the obviously tier-5, middle of record fusion sophistipop oddity “The First Taste”. In amongst a collection of focussed, defiant anthems and poignant, melancholy confessionals – songs that twist and pirouette; calling to mind Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos, Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson; some, when you’re caught up on the context, powerful enough to stick you to the spot as if turned into a pillar of salt – it’s a sort of freaked out calypso fever dream. There’s no trip hop drum sound, no vertiginous or lush string arrangements, no arresting moment of vulnerable honesty …. nor any evidence of the sort of artistic restraint that produces the atmosphere across rest of the record. Instead, there’s a shimmering sound effect here, a bell tolling there, an electric guitar or three, at least six types of keyboard, potentially a marimba, lots of whining, uncharacteristically on the nose lyrics, then a two-minute outro with another guitar playing a thoroughly unconvincing solo. My favourite song on Tidal, an album full of songs with grit and power, is, potentially, the dorkiest of Fiona Apple’s entire recording career. So yeah, I suspect I do know what it says about me. But how’s about we just let the kid be a fucking dork sometimes, come on.

Cool, offbeat, jazzy tunes. Amazing how young she was when she made it too!

sounds very 90s but i respect fiona apples game

On a recomendation i bought fetch the boltcutters when it came out and absolutely loved it. Never actually got as far as exploring the rest of her stuff until.now. Three tracks in i thought i was heading for a masterpiece as good as bolt cutters but it didn't quite maintain the quality throughout. I will listen again though!

won't deny her talent, but the constant negative vibes just get me down. love her voice. Music is like a hip Norah Jones, but better. Sullen Girl and Slow Like Honey stand out from the rest.

3.5

Well, hello 1996! How have you been? Haven’t seen you around for a while. What’s that? You want to totally immerse me in you again by playing this album? Ok. That works fine for me. Thank you!

Not a bad album by any stretch but it also just feels like background noise at a coffee shop

Not sure what the thinking was here. I'm sure it is someone's favourite album of all time but I can't think of a single outstanding song.

Someone else already said this but this is one of those albums and artists that I just don’t know how how to enjoy, but seeing others love this makes me intrigued. My intrigue can’t make me like it tho lol. I don’t get the appeal of Fiona Apple but good for her

Never connected with Fiona Apple’s music, unfortunately. Doesn’t help that she’s been singing about the same thing for over 20 years.

Not aged well.

Not Fiona's best, but she sets the bar so high. I don't have any notes, it just wasn't as good as idler wheel or bolt cutters for me. Still, in the context of this exercise, essential listening. 8/10

On relisten, it's not quite as good as I remember, but I think there's definitely still an argument that this is her best album. As much as I love When The Pawn... (and I do love When The Pawn...), there's something so fun and like engaging about this album. And to top it off Criminal is genuinely one of the best songs ever written, easily her finest work. I feel like this one really doesn't get the love it deserves, it's a really amazing album. Favorites: Sleep to Dream, Criminal, Carrion

100 stars

Masterpiece. And one of the first CDs I bought at blockbuster music in 1996.

Only listened to fetch the bolt cutters before this. A little less experimental than that but very enjoyable 90s fare.

one of the best voices ever

Really beautiful. The biggest thing I learned from this was that Fiona Apple was the face of a sound that I've heard everywhere, even though I never heard this album. Really interesting, and want to listen more.

Really good debut album Favs to keep: Criminal, Slow like Honey, The First Taste, Pale September, Carrion

peak

At age 19 btw

This will be an interim kind of review that I will probably never come back and update. Although I was always aware of the name Fiona Apple, incredibly, it took until amazing reviews of ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’ before I finally made it my business to start listening to her. Prior to this I had it in my head that she was some kind of sappy singer/songwriter, knocking out pleasant, inoffensive sweetness that I wouldn’t have time for (maybe like Jewel though tbf I’m just as ignorant about her as I used to be about Fiona Apple so apologies if I’m way off about Jewel) There isn’t much back catalogue to work my way through, but I am doing it very gradually. So much so, that when this was generated for me, I still had never heard a note of it. Well, fuck-a-duck it certainly is not sappy at all. Before hearing it I had discovered at least that she packs attitude, but I certainly didn’t expect as much of it to have already been present way back when she recorded this at whatever bonkers young age she was. I listened and was instantly impressed (to a blown away level) and have ordered a copy online immediately. This album could easily make it to a 5* for me, and I will be giving it a lot of attention when it turns up, but for now I can safely give it 4 and like I say, will hopefully be able to come back and revise this review with more mention of the actual music.

"I'd tell you how I feel but you don't care," 18-year-old Fiona Apple sneers on "Sleep to Dream" in one of the hardest opening lines ever put to wax, and immediately we're off and going - into a mournful and yet also energetic examination of what it feels like to be thrown too quickly into the adult world. Like every jungle, this one has predators ("Sullen Girl," "Shadowboxer") - and demands that Apple bare her own fangs in order to survive ("Criminal"). That doesn't mean there's nothing smoother here - "The First Taste" was a template for a legion of mostly inferior jazz-inflected singer-songwriters over the next decade-plus - but Apple's imitators largely lacked the preternatural insight and compositional command she displays here. "Never Is a Promise" is a highlight among highlights, a rejoinder to an erstwhile lover who can't understand why this woman has to be so damn *difficult* all the time; "you'll never see the courage I know," she tells him, acknowledging that her immense capacity for feeling means she also will only rarely be understood (an insight Apple's winding career path indicates she took to heart). And it's followed by "The Child Is Gone," which announces resolve in its purposeful, insistent chords even as the lyrics express uncertainty; the courage referenced on the previous track is demonstrated. No wonder the industry never quite knew what to do with her; she defies any categorization beyond just the category of "great American recording artist." This record should be issued *en masse* to every teenager on the planet.

21/09/2026 I am surprised this has been rated so highly, I have never heard of her and found her really boring! Spotify listeners: 2.9 million

Faktiskt bra!

5/10

Une de mes découvertes préférées depuis le début de l'aventure. Je suis épaté de pas connaître c'est vraiment génial, complètement ma came. J'hésitais entre 4 et 5 mais merde c'est trop cool et pourquoi se priver

Vraiment mid

Icon

Franchement très sympa

Started strong but kind of lost me as it went. Might not have been in the right mood, but no tracks were grabbing me.

her music just doesn’t speak to me

Yeah it’s good. Not my taste but undeniably good.

*all-time.

4/10

Très mimi, doux, parle d’amour

It was okay, lyrically pretty good, but just didn’t do much for me

Almost a 5, just a few weaker tracks that held it back. But Shadowboxer, Never Is a Promise, Pale September and Carrion are really fantastic. It's wild how young she was when she wrote this, incredible debut.

Stunning album. Definitely something to listen to. Best track was Never is a Promise, which was really really beautiful song.

dissonant yet coherent and beautiful but sometimes she loses me

Parte de hype de los 90 de chicas con piano. Una vez pasada la moda, algo quedo, y aunque creo que es una de las mejores tuvo algún lío con la discográfica o algo de eso que es la muerte en vida. Lo he escuchado un par de veces, en orden y luego en orden de popularidad. Criminal está bien y la guardaré. He subido la nota a todo desde "Captain Beefheart", así que le voy a meter un 3.

I saw a review saying the lyrics are cliché, I must agree. Instrumentally sophisticated and sometimes jazzy with a pop voice.