Fiona's apple sauce

So now we find out that it wasn't the big bad record company but the artist herself who pulled the plug on her own album (Extraordinary Machine)? That's what Billboard magazine is reporting: Fiona Fashions A Different 'Machine'

Quite an interesting twist on the story, isn't it? Note that it's not Fiona who's commenting on this now but her new producer. Wonder what her old producer, Jon Brion, has to say. For that matter, it will be interesting to see what Apple herself has to say when she does the inevitable publicity for her comeback.

Is it too cynical to wonder if part of this story is a little... shall we say contrived? Her own fans mount an online protest against her record company about her album and she remains silent for the better part of a year? Some of them ain't gonna be happy about that, rest assured. Granted that it's not inconceivable- remember that Prince did the same thing with The Black Album back in the late 80's when it was also first assumed that his record company was the culprit (even though his contract stated that he had complete control over his albums).

One of the questions you have to wonder about is why did the story come out that it was her record company who decided that her album wasn't commercial enough. She could have easily and quickly denied that. If you go along with that reasoning, then you could speculate that she was a little embarrassed to say that she herself wasn't happy with what she delivered to them. But if that's the case, who was the source of the leaked album? Wouldn't make any sense for her label to do that. Someone get Patrick Fitzgerald on the case and jail someone!

But seriously folks... Other than hearing her own explanations (which should be very newsworthy itself), it'll also be interesting to compare her final product with the version that's been floating around the Net. She's going to have to do quite a balancing act to appear credible here. I honestly wish her luck with this- I do like her work and always thought that Machine should have come out as it was. But she owes it to her fans and admirers to say why she was totally silent during the controversy.