Critics give Fetch the Bolt Cutters a B-Side Breakdown of 94 (Heavy Rotation), from 15 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 80 to 100.
The verdict on Fetch the Bolt Cutters
15 of 15 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 100 The Line of Best Fit, The Independent, The Telegraph and 3 more
- Lowest 80 NME
- By the numbers The best-reviewed album of Fiona Apple's career on B-Side Breakdowns, ahead of The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (85). The best-reviewed album of 2020 we've tracked.
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Line of Best Fitby Liam Inscoe-Jones | 10/10 | 100 | 2020 | “Eight years in the making, Fetch The Bolt Cutters is Fiona Apple harmoniously unleashed” |
| The Independent via Wikipediaby Alexandra Pollard | 5/5 | 100 | 2020 | “The reclusive artist’s fifth record, released with the world at a safe distance, couldn’t have come at a better time” |
| The Telegraph via Wikipediaby Neil McCormick | 5/5 | 100 | 2020 | |
| The Guardian via Wikipediaby Laura Barton | 5/5 | 100 | 2020 | “The unhurried artist’s first studio album in eight years is astonishing, intimate and demonstrates a refusal to be silenced” |
| Slant | 5/5 | 100 | “The singer stretches her talents in adventurous new directions throughout the album.” | |
| Pitchfork | 10/10 | 100 | 2020 | “Fiona Apple’s fifth record is unbound, a wild symphony of the everyday, an unyielding masterpiece. No music has ever sounded quite like it.” |
| The A.V. Club via Wikipediaby Nina Corcoran | A | 93 | 2020 | “With Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple hits a zenith of liberation and experimentation” |
| Consequence | A | 93 | “Reclusive songwriter Fiona Apple emerges with Fetch the Bolt Cutters, her most challenging, raw, and liberating listen to date.” | |
| Rolling Stone via Wikipediaby Claire Shaffer | 4.5/5 | 90 | 2020 | |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Stephen Thomas Erlewine | 4.5/5 | 90 | ||
| Clash | 9/10 | 90 | “Fiona Apple’s fifth album and her first in eight years ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’ has finally arrived, a record lovingly made in her” | |
| Louder Than War | 9/10 | 90 | “On her first album in eight years, Fiona Apple continues to demonstrate why she's a singular talent.” | |
| PopMatters | 9/10 | 90 | “When Emily Nussbaum's superlative profile of Fiona Apple appeared in The New Yorker in March of 2020, a lot of attention was centered on a downright shocking” | |
| musicOMH | 4.5/5 | 90 | “There's an unsettling edge to one of the most remarkable albums of the year” | |
| NME via Wikipediaby Charlotte Krol | 4/5 | 80 | 2020 | “On her first record in eight years, the New Yorker teams excoriating lyrics with deliberately unrefined sounds. It's a visceral experience” |
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Fetch the Bolt Cutters in Fiona Apple's catalog
How these critics usually treat Fiona Apple
- AllMusic Harsher than usual4 points below the other critics here. Usually 11 points above on Fiona Apple's other albums (4).
- The Guardian Kinder than usual7 points above the other critics here. Usually 5 points below on Fiona Apple's other albums (4).
- Pitchfork About usual for them7 points above the other critics here. Usually 1 point above on Fiona Apple's other albums (4).
- Rolling Stone About usual for them4 points below the other critics here. Usually 8 points below on Fiona Apple's other albums (3).
- NME About usual for them15 points below the other critics here. Usually 15 points below on Fiona Apple's other albums (3).
More from Fiona Apple
More Indie & Alternative from around 2020
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How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59) and averaged. A letter grade counts as the star rating it matches across thousands of reviews of the same albums, so a B+ is 75, like four stars, and a B is 65. Verdicts: Heavy Rotation is 85 and up, Keeper 70–84, Mixed Bag 55–69, Back of the Crate below 55. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 70 or higher (7/10, three and a half stars); the Breakdown shows green at 70 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.
A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.
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