Fiona Rides "Machine"

Fiona Apple will kick off a three-week U.S. tour beginning November 22nd in Portland, Oregon, in support of her long-delayed third album, Extraordinary Machine.

Released Tuesday, the follow-up to 1999's When the Pawn . . . has ascended to the Number One spot on the iTunes album chart. Apple began recording Machine with producer Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Kanye West) in 2003, but scrapped most of the sessions. Though eleven songs from the album surfaced online, Apple continued work on the set with producers Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg) and Brian Kehew (Beck, Eels) for the twelve-track final product.

"I've got a bundle of songs of which I am exceedingly proud," Apple told Rolling Stone of Machine.

This will be the singer-songwriter's first tour in more than five years.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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