Fiona Apple confused by all her issues

Fiona Apple admits she's "good at being uncomfortable". Picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - Conflicts: We've all got 'em -- those religious, parental and societal messages that occasionally cancel each other out. Some folks talk them out with a psychiatrist, others avoid them with a bottle of booze. Fiona Apple dresses them up and sets them to music.

Apple pulled into the Wiltern with her issues on display, pushing through a 100-minute set filled with internal and interpersonal conflicts, many of them overlapping. A distinct tension came through in the sometimes analytical, sometimes angry lyrics, but that tension was matched in the music's tone, Apple's delivery and her stage presence.

Touring behind her first album in six years, Apple did not communicate well between songs, in part because enough women in the audience felt a need to shriek during the quiet moments that they blurred most of her comments. But Apple also showed a certain nervousness about talking. She introduced "Shadowboxer" as "a song I mean very much," then apologized after performing it, noting that she'd been referring to a different song. As a result, she implied -- probably unintentionally -- that she hadn't really felt a connection to "Shadowboxer." At another point, an audience member yelled out "We love you," and Apple seemed entirely flummoxed.

Apple's actual singing proved much stronger and coherent. Brooding and introspective performances dovetailed with forceful and angry ones, and she often vacillated between those emotional states within a single number.

Backed by a bass, drums and two electronic keyboard players, Apple spent much of her time seated at a baby grand. But when she stood center stage, her physical movements supported the conflicts within her songs and her vocal performance. Apple clutched frequently at her blue gown, kicked often with her right leg and occasionally broke a tense pose by flinging an arm or two. Whether she was acting or literally reliving the emotions of the songs, she seemed frustrated, distraught and entirely conflicted.

Musically, all of that was supported by chords that toyed with dissonance, shifting rhythms and off-kilter phrasings. It's as if the songs were teetering, just about to lose their balance. Utilizing the eerie fuzz of synthetic keyboards, the arrangements had a loose, hazy quality about them. The drummer's primary role thus became providing sturdiness to intentionally unstable material.

Impressionistic color swatches on the backdrop added to the lack of resolution inherent in the works, and that visual enhancement proved completely appropriate, given that much of the evening felt like a dramatic soundtrack to an Alfred Hitchcock movie, ever-so-slightly lighthearted while it unravels some very perplexing mysteries.

While performing the title track to her new "Extraordinary Machine" CD, Apple noted that she's "good at being uncomfortable." That came through loud and clear in multiple ways during an evening of intriguing conflict.

- REUTERS