In her column “Made a Mixtape, Hope You Like It,” Amanda Altarejos ’26 curates a “mixtape” of modern music for older artists. Listen here for a playlist “for fiona apple.”
In an interview with NPR, Fiona Apple is heard as an “unapologetic woman.” Her alternative voice speaks and screams and cries and whispers to unapologetic women everywhere, feeling everything, everywhere. Her most recent release, “Fetch The Bolt Cutters,” is an album of liberation — she demands to be let loose.
The rest of her discography is similar, and that is why I love it. She invites you to feel it all with her and to be proud that you do. This mixtape contains songs that try to do the same for her. They are weird and beautiful and terrifying, but aren’t we all? Fiona surely seems to be.
1. “Norman Fucking Rockwell” by Lana Del Rey
Despite the harsh title, “Norman Fucking Rockwell” is a soft caress of pointed disappointment with a “god-damn man child.” Similar to many of the songs in Fiona Apple’s 1996 album, “Tidal,” sweet, tender sounds undulate beneath lyrics that narrate the thoughts of a defiant and loving and hating woman; she is all of those things because she can be. It’s time to let loose.
2. “He Loves Me Yeah!” by Faye Webster
“He Loves Me Yeah!” is a cheekier response to the tumultuous first EP “Fetch The Bolt Cutters, I Want You to Love Me.” Fiona is feeling existential in her body, and she angrily wants someone to love her. Webster provides a playful response: she affirms that her “baby” loves her, and yeah. When heard live, Webster’s screaming of “yeah” is warmly reminiscent of Fiona’s own weird noises that are sprinkled throughout her albums.
3. “Demi Moore” by Phoebe Bridgers
Fiona seems to be unafraid of intimacy, both with another and with us, the listener, regarding love. She has pride in her desires and struggles, yet confidently shares them out loud. In “The First Taste,” she confesses that it was “her aim to get caught” and consumed by her lover. This late night thought permeates the narrator of Phoebe Bridgers’ “Demi Moore.” Longing has become too much – their need for closeness triumphs over however terrible that consumption may be.
4. “Drunk Walk Home” by Mitski
Let us all be angrily proud of our bad decisions with man-children who write “bad poetry” and little boys who don’t know why we “don’t feel so good.” I hope Fiona can find a home in this fellow unapologetic woman’s monologue. The song is a brash march of drums and a screeching guitar that melts into Mitski’s own screaming, making it all the more satisfying and beautiful to listen to.
5. “Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart” by Mitski
Mitski just gets it. She says that she’s “not the girl” she “ought to be,” and neither is Fiona, who has an entire song dedicated to feeling like a “criminal” in the face of a “delicate man.”
6. “Liquid Smooth” by Mitski
Again, Mitski’s ability to blend despair and confidence could be a musical home for Fiona. Mitski feels strong in “Liquid Smooth” as she dares others to touch her at her prime, right before she falls. She knows who she is and isn’t afraid of it. Fiona does, too.
7. “Bad Girls” by Blood Orange
If the Fiona Apple type of girlhood had a moment where things always remained just fun and flirty, “Bad Girls” by Blood Orange would narrate that montage. A short break from the intensity of the other songs on this mixtape, “Bad Girls” is the background of a night of possibility – of bad relationships, good ones, drinking, staying at home. It’s all the same, and we’re all so drawn to it.
8. “Gibson Girl” by Ethel Cain
Fiona has confessed in “Criminal” that she hopes to be punished for being careless with men. She is bad. She knows this. Mitski knows this. Ethel Cain’s “Gibson Girl” knows it too. She is aware of male desire and takes control of it, because “if it feels good, then it can’t be bad.” And that is what I want for Fiona – for her to feel good. To feel true.
Editor’s Note: This article includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.