Top 10 of 2012: #4 Fiona Apple - Werewolf 

Fiona Apple - "Werewolf"

I could liken you to a werewolf the way you left me for dead
But I admit that I provided a full moon

And she's back.

"Werewolf" starts out with just a few piano keys, laid under those lyrics, leading into another couplet about a shark and a bleeding wound. As usual, Fiona Apple has a way to layer contrasting sounds and ideas together into her special sort of genius, which seems to take her seven years or so to wrangle.

It's such a simple song, just piano and sparse drums, laid under this wonderful violent imagery of how powerful (and dangerous) a relationship can be—werewolves, lava, sharks, chemical reactions. All wonderful metaphors, and then the stomach punch—the recognition that it's the fault of both parties. The only way to end the destructive part of the relationship is to simple avoid each other. Take one for the team.

The song is capped off with the voices of screaming children leading into (and underlaying) the final verse. I'm sure the children are just playing, but it eerily sounds like they might be being chased by a werewolf. On this album, Fiona Apple has done a lot with minimal instrumentation. Here, a piano, drums, and some children playing are all that is necessary to build a phenomenal song.

On a side note, this could easily have been "Hot Knife" off the same album, which is just a ridiculously good song that is basically nothing but vocal tracks layered on top of more vocal tracks, all with big huge tympanis banging in the background. Another day, that track would be here.