I wasn’t fussed about Fiona Apple’s return to the spotlight until I heard this song. Arch, spare and moody, with an unexpected push in the chorus, Every Single Night is an awfully clever tune. It starts out harmless enough but then her voice begins to tremble and snarl, carefully constrained against music that shudders and fits. Meanwhile, the lyrics are vivid as hell: “Every single night I endure the flight of little wings of white-flamed butterflies in my brain/These ideas of mine percolate the mind trickle down the spine, swarm the belly, swelling to a blaze/That’s when the pain comes in, like a second skeleton, trying to fit beneath the skin/I can’t fit the feelings in…I just want to feel everything/So I’m gonna try to be still now.” Her bristling, anxious energy is unchanged, still youthful, still sexy and as always, a little bit insane.
