I could liken you to a shark: The best of Fiona Apple

The success of an okay debut fueling her confidence, Fiona Apple hasn’t looked back since 1997-1998 when “Criminal” charmed a generation of college students. I saw her at the long gone Sunrise Musical Theater in October ’97, not a fan, but convinced she was a lifer. This exquisitely self-dramatizing singer-songwriter has kept her sizable cult intact through the vagaries of record company politics.I wasn’t a fan but was impressed with her confidence. To my ears When The Pawn… wasn’t a leap forward so much as a consolidation; since her teenage years she has understood how to present herself, shaming Rufus Wainwright, John Grant, and any male colleague whose rococo wiles adduce the complexity of their reactions. By the time she released 2012’s The Idler Wheel she was occupying her own space, delighting in playing from the periphery, dismissing a lover, perhaps “Jonathan,” as a werewolf, a shark, chemical — all in the same song — but concludes, “But we can still support each other, all we gotta do’s avoid each other.”

Treating melody as a painter would color, Fetch the Bolt Cutters finds Apple turning herself into Prince, a dervish overdubbing herself atop her own drum tracks while her self-control remains chilling.

1. Werewolf
2. Paper Bag
3. Window
4. Newspaper
5. Criminal
6. Every Single Night
7. O’ Sailor
8. Hot Knife
9. Under the Table
10. Sleep to Dream
11. Waltz
12. Jonathan
13. Extraordinary Machine
14. Fetch the Bolt Cutters
15. Shadowboxer
16. The Way Things Are
17. Valentine
18. Get Gone
19. On I Go
20. Ladies