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FIONA APPLE
When the Pawn...
Clean Slate/Epic, $17.98

With her 1996 debut album "Tidal," Fiona Apple was heralded as a fresh voice in jazz-pop and often scorned as a tactless brat. Some critics have already been put off by the 90-word poetic title of Apple's latest, due Tuesday. But "Pawn" reveals Apple's maturing sense of music.

The album is alive with rhythm, from the one-two punch of "Limp" to the jiving first single, "Fast as You Can." Apple is using her piano less as a prop and more as a real instrument, one that's cunning in tempo and flavor. Backing her is producer and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion and Matt Chamberlin, whose resume includes Tori Amos and Pearl Jam.

Apple's songwriting shows greater depth, from the simple fury of "Get Gone" to the lush poetry of "Love Ridden:" "I've wished on the lidded blue flames under your brow... I want your warm, but it will only make me colder when it's over." Even her naked voice sounds more assured, sometimes lovely on ballads like "I Know."

Apple walks a fine line; the freedom of jazz suits her, but she uses pop to achieve a greater audience -- one which can't decide to love or hate her. That seems to suit her, too.

-- Beth Winegarner

This article was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle.