always good to see you too! still lurk occasionally, but leave it up to Fiona to bring us out of the woodwork...

and yeah, Extraordinary Machine feels the most conventional because of its production sheen. It's a good album that has a slickness that might undermine some of the rawness of emotion.

I like Idler Wheel a lot, too. It's where she really embraced her voice as an instrument, less worried about sounding 'good' and more willing to contort it. Almost sounds like she's learning to play with new tools, so the songs don't connect with me as much as on the other 3.

Tidal is Tidal. Such mature songwriting for someone so young.

My favorite part of Fetch The Bolt Cutters is how funny it is. She's spittin some darts in there. And the music has so many unexpected twists and embellishments that I can tell I'll be discovering new details in it for a long time.

Then there's When The Pawn. My favorite of the production (I'm a Jon Brion apologist). Still get a jolt from those drums on "Fast As You Can."