When the Pawn...

Fiona Apple's enveloping sophomore album focuses on piano-based pop suited to intimate jazz cabarets. String arrangements add a sense of turmoil to the vaudevillian waltz "On the Bound" and a glamorous touch to the torchy ballad "Love Ridden," while paper-thin percussion clatters like fading footsteps on "Get Gone." Apple uses her unmistakable voice—a dusky alto bursting with wisdom, drama, and pathos—to deliver a piercing emotional intelligence throughout these moody, layered songs.