Sleep to Dream

Sleep to Dream opens with the line: I have never been so insulted in all my life. Fiona Apple wrote it when she was fourteen. It was her first lyric. Jon Brion plays vibraphone and tack piano underneath a vocal that does not ask for anything. The production is chamber pop with a jazz frame and a hard center. Apple plays piano. Matt Chamberlain plays drums and keeps space between the beats. The song is about dismissing someone who cannot match what she brings. It does not sound like a teenager’s first attempt at anything.

Fiona Apple was eighteen when Tidal came out. Producer Andrew Slater signed her to the Work Group after a showcase in Los Angeles. When he first met her he thought a prank was being played on him. A visibly young woman had written all of this. He described it as a Milli Vanilli moment. Apple described the album as proof directed at people from her past and a way to find friends for the future. She recorded Sleep to Dream with Jon Brion in 1995 immediately after signing. The lyric she had written at fourteen became the opening track of her debut.

Tidal peaked at number fifteen on the Billboard 200 and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA. Sleep to Dream peaked at number 28 on Billboard Alternative Airplay. When Apple won the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1997 she used her acceptance speech to say this world is bullshit. The press called it ungrateful. She was nineteen years old. Apple later told New York magazine she walked backstage proud and understood in that moment that they needed her more than she needed them. Rolling Stone ranked Tidal number 25 on their list of the 100 best debut albums of all time. Thirty years ago today she was eighteen. The album still leads.