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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Extraordinary Machine
Universal acclaim
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 133 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Sony
Release Date: 04 October 2005
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Summary
The singer-songwriter's third album finally sees the light of day after originally being shelved by her record label in 2003 and then leaked onto the Internet. This official 'Machine' is a newly-recorded version (with producer Mike Elizondo taking over for the original's Jon Brion), so if you've heard the leaked tracks, you haven't heard this. Let the comparisons begin!
Also By This Artist: When The Pawn...
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly
The cleaner take on Extraordinary Machine is like a trip to a less cluttered haunted house, and Apple's more nuanced delivery sticks the knife in, but slowly. It's both charming and devastating. [7 Oct 2005, p.72]
Amazon.com
With Extraordinary Machine, she shatters already sky-high expectations.
Read Full Review >Blender
This is one helluva piece of singer-songwriter art. [Nov 2005, p.129]
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
Although Mike Elizondo adds momentum, Jon Brion's colors still predominate, and the melodic and structural contours are all Apple's.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's another solid set of passionate, angry, marvelously produced songs delivered by a singular voice, and it succeeds by following a muse that doesn't just ignore genre distinctions and pop delineations—it doesn't know they exist.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
The title track and "Waltz" bookend Extraordinary Machine. Both excel, set to Brion's signature command of crisp, idiomatic, Van Dyke Parks-influenced Hollywood symphonics. But the Elizondo-Kehew tracks top them.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
There's a new layer of perspective on her magnificent third album. [3 Oct 2005]
All Music Guide
Extraordinary Machine may be more accessible, but it remains an art-pop album in its attitude, intent and presentation -- it's just that the presentation is cleaner, making her attitude appealing and her intent easier to ascertain, and that's what makes this final, finished Extraordinary Machine something pretty close to extraordinary.
Read Full Review >Billboard
With a less confessional and more confrontational attitude, this long-gestating album has lost the tenderness found on "Tidal" and some of "When the Pawn . . .," but her execution still commands attention. [8 Oct 2005]
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
For every song that's been improved there's one that's been unnecessarily tooled with.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
Apart the two versions are about equal, combined they could have been amazing.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
In a genre hardly noted for springing surprises on its listeners, Extraordinary Machine sounds like a real achievement: however torturous the gestation, it seems worthwhile.
Read Full Review >Uncut
There's now a sardonic wit to these break-up ballads. [Dec 2005, p.120]
Drawer B
She’s clever and sharp with her lyrical daggers, and she’s frighteningly aware of the impact of her own voice.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
This is a frequently great and occasionally bold statement from an - extraordinary - artist on top of her game.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
With its prowling, piano-led menace and barely contained fury, Extraordinary Machine offers ample confirmation that Apple is far darker than your average singer-songwriter. [Jan 2006, p.126]
Mojo
A fine, off-beat listen. [Jan 2006, p.124]
Spin
Elizondo's zippy production effectively pushes Apple's tendency to plod. [Nov 2005, p.96]
New Musical Express
Lurches spectacularly from lounge-jazz to avant-vaudeville and takes a pop at everything in between. [14 Jan 2006, p.34]
Prefix Magazine
Not only have Brion’s strings been replaced by an indescribably awkward alt-rock guitar riff and a misplaced drum beat, but Apple’s vocals have lost all of their bite and passion. On Brion’s work, she seemed hungry, ready to get back into it all. Here she retains the emotion that such a talented singer can muster on a good day but none of the rawness that signifies her best work.
Read Full Review >E! Online
Her voice has grown huskier with age, the songs are barely there, and hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo doesn't have the delicate hand that's required to bring them to life.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Lacking both the musical and counter-cultural thrill of the Brion recordings, this album turns away from a certain artistic "rawness" in the original recordings, razing away counter-melodies and acoustic decay for a well-polished delivery that presents the photogenic songstress in a more "flattering" light.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
The officially released version of Extraordinary Machine remains a decent-to-good album, one that showcases Apple's considerable vocal and key-pounding talents.... The shame of it all is that Apple, after six years of silence, could've made a more definitive, progressive statement rather than something familiar and similar-- and we've got the bootlegs to prove it.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 133 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alfonso G. gave it a10:
Omg, this is her vest album to date! Sure tidal was awesome and so was her other one with the really long name that I cant remember for some reason right now. I think this album just pretty much surpasses any expectations she had for her whole career or any one else. I think as each album she makes, she just continues to do better and better and better and so on. The lyrics and just the melodies and the tempos and everything is sooo on the perfect notch! Every single song has so much to look afford to. This Album will go down as awesome!
Alexis B. gave it a10:
LITERALLY my all time favourite album, im not here to talk abt which version is better but to talk abt fiona's work and evolvement as an artist, she broke every line with EM. Jon Brion did an amazing work with Not About Love, Red Red Red and Used to Love Him while Elizondo did an amazing work for get Him Back, O sailor (2 thumbs up!) and Window...but i must say that, to me, some Brion tracks were totally unhearable (get Him back) and cold (Oh Sailor) while Elizondo did his best to make a world out of every song and indeed, he succeeded...amazing album, one of those that u just listen to but cant quite figure out how to criticize it
Raffaella A. gave it a10:
I'm one of the few who prefer the new version to the baroque one she conceived with Brion - I love it actually! The clean sounds leave room for raw emotions, carried by Fiona's outstanding voice. Obsession (Get Him Back) and wiseness (Better Than Fine) live together well in some of Fiona's best lyrics ever.
C Liam gave it a10:
Her every albums are my all time favourite and I give it a 10 too!
Robbie C gave it a5:
An utter disappointment. The original tracks sounded audacious, ostentatious, grandiose! Unlike any other music being made today. In their finished state, she is part Eminem, part Fiona-on-Quaaludes, all weak and compromised. The only reason this album gets so much as a 5 is because two of the tracks are unchanged and two others might have been improved.
Vin gave it a10:
The leaked version of the album is ten times better than the official release. It was more raw and organic. It had more emotion.
Mike gave it an8:
Very good.... But I liked her 2nd album alot more.
