Fiona Apple's unreleased new CD, Extraordinary Machine, had 5 tracks pre-released on an AngelFire page. The host was quickly thereatened and the tracks were removed.

Yes, I grabbed them for myself. No, I won't make them available. I'll bet they are widely availalble on Kazaa/ Bittorrent already.

Here's the thing: This is her most compelling music since Tidal. Its intriguing, ambitious, oddly haunting -- and beautiful.

I want to hear more. Indeed, only having access to the first few tracks is a major tease. I must buy this when its released. >

UPDATE I:
Here's where things get interesting: It turns out Apple's label (Sony) isn't releasing the CD -- they have had the masters since Spring 2003. Rolling Stone notes that the album has been "indefinitely shelved", deemed too non-commercial for release by the brain trust at Sony.

If you go to Fiona's site (via Sony's page) and click on Fans, there is an ongoing discussion about getting the CD released. There's even a website, freefiona.com, dedicated to prying the CD free from Sony.

Thus, we see yet another valuable usage of P2P -- it provides artists a way around their lables when they get heavy handed or take advantage in a contract dispute. We won't have to wait very long to find out if this was yet another "accidental" P2P release. I have no doubt this was a purposeful tactic by Fiona or her management/producers . . . (It does not look like a publicity stunt, but if it were, there would be a major backlash).


UPDATE II:
As I was thinking about the title -- Extraordinary Machine -- I came to realize that it referred as much to P2P as it did the the name of the disc.

Consider:  P2P allowed a frustrated artist in a struggle against a
titanic company to reach her fans. Not only did she disintermediate the
label, bypassing them to go right to the end consunmers of the music, but the "Extraordinary Machine" leveled the field in a David versus Goliath battle.  (And now there are at least 7 tracks floating around).


Intriguing . . .



UPDATE III:
Incidentally, I knew none of this when I first came across the tracks earlier this week. I merely thought they sounded great.

Now I learn that this is unavailable by a conscious decision made by her label not to release this -- as too non-commercial. That's simply unreal to this music fan.

The Freefiona.com FAQ notes:

Why does Sony/Epic think her new album won't sell? Didn't her last two albums go platinum? Yes, Tidal and When the Pawn... are both RIAA certified platinum in the United States. Sony Music recently replaced chairman and CEO Tommy "Love ya, baby!" Mottola with former NBC president Andrew Lack, a businessman with no prior music experience. He immediately shifted Sony Music's focus to pop and hip-hop acts that are traditionally bigger sellers. The master recordings of Extraordinary Machine were sent to a warehouse, where they remain to this day.

Is this industry not its own worst enemy? I do not like to draw broad conclusions from mere anecdotal evidence -- but damn, these people are frighteningly incompetant.

I am astonished at this poor judgment. Quite frankly, the music industry's corporate management is simply too out of touch, clueless, and -- too *#$%ing dumb -- for the business to survive in its present form. Something must change -- and thanks to technology, actually is.

At this point, putting them down is akin to shooting a horse with a broken leg . . . its more merciful to put it out of its own misery. I>

UPDATE: March 17, 2005, 5:57am
Mark Morford of the San Francisco Gate weighs in on Extraordinary Machine: Who Will Free Fiona Apple?


Sources:
FreeFiona.com

In Brief: Fiona Apple aired
Rolling Stone, Posted Mar 01, 2005

Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Songs Leaked On The Radio
Seattle station the End 107.7 played five tracks from the unreleased LP.
MTV,  03.01.2005 3:07 PM EST