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	FIONA APPLE Conflict/resolution

When she first appeared crawling around a bathroom in her undies back in the 1996 video for her first single, "Criminal," then 19-year-old Fiona Apple learned the hard way that a little controversy can go a long way. It took an extreme measure — a 1999 album with an outrageously long 90-word title — to put the focus on Fiona Apple the artist and not Fiona Apple the object. That may have been a commercial disappointment, but it began the process of whittling her audience down to serious fans only — the kind who couldn’t hold back from screaming "We love you, Fiona!", "You’re the best, Fiona!", and even "We need you, Fiona" during the pregnant pauses between songs at her almost sold-out Orpheum Theatre gig a week ago Wednesday. Or, say, the kind of fans who might be compelled to protest outside Sony’s offices if there were rumors that Epic had balked at releasing the first Fiona album in six years because there wasn’t an obvious single on it.

Apple didn’t mention the album controversy during her set. Indeed, aside from informing the crowd that she’d been conceived in Boston, a rather stern Fiona in a long, loosely fitted flowing black dress kept her mouth shut between songs and let her music do the talking. Her voice has deepened since her last tour, and she’s taken on a skillful backing band — including a jazz-grip drummer, two keyboardists, and a bassist — who can handle the subtleties of Extraordinary Machine’s jazzier arrangements without overplaying the simpler, rockist tunes from Tidal, which included an unapologetic "Criminal." "Here’s a song about the day I found out about the other woman; I’d like to thank her very much," she remarked cryptically as an intro to "Oh Well." This year Fiona Apple has discovered that, with the right amount of resolution, a little controversy can be an artist’s best friend.