Tough nut to crack, and this is only the emotive pendulum swing at mid-stroke. "All my life is on me now, hail the pages turning / And the future's on the bound, hell don't know my fury," Apple ferociously sings in "On the Bound." And you believe her when she warns, "My pretty mouth will frame the phrases that will / Disprove your faith in man" (Fast As You Can.)
But this woman scorned can take it to the limit — and we're not talking about merely being careless with a delicate man. In the scathing powerhouse "Get Gone," Apple sends the guy packing — no doubt he deserved it — but if she is the one left with cares and woes, her dignity's intact: "There's nothing left to grieve / Fuckin go- / Cuz I've done what I could for you, and I do know what's / Good for me..."
Good for her. Not so good for the miscreant in in "Limp." This little ditty of anti-mellow derision is not your mother’s school of confessional singer-songwriter sensitivity. It's a different kind of touchy-feelie emotion, more menacing and venomous, as Apple bristles:
- ...And when I think of it, my fingers turn to fists
I never did anything to you, man
But no matter what I try
You'll beat me with your bitter lies
So call me crazy, hold me down
Make me cry; get off now, baby-
It won't be long till you'll be
Lying limp in your own hand.
Ah, good times, good times...
On a much different note and slower-paced, the wondrously tender ballad "Love Ridden" engenders from separation and regret a resonance that lingers long after the last tender tendril of misgiving falls away: "I want your warm, but it will only make / Me colder when it's over." The expressive emotion in Apple's voice conveys as much heartbreak as the words, gradually recounting and revealing a scenario wherein "I stood too long in the way of the door / And now I'm giving up on you."
The last song on When The Pawn is the torchy and transcendent slow-crawl "I Know." "So be it, I'm your crowbar / If that's what I am so far," Apple begins, as if she personifies some Donne-like metaphysical conceit. But as this highly affecting song, and the album in general, is reflective of true-life troubles and transitions going on in Apple's life at the time, any artifice soon gives way to realities: "Baby — I can't help you out, while she's still around." Entreaties and expressions of solace and sorrow fill in the picture as Apple avows that "you can use my skin / To bury secrets in / And I will settle you down."
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