“Heavy Balloon” by Fiona Apple

"Heavy Balloon" arrived with the rest of Fetch the Bolt Cutters on April 17, 2020, Fiona Apple's fifth album and her first release since The Idler Wheel... eight years earlier. She wrote it alone and sings both the lead and the backing parts, and the credits show how much of it rests on rhythm: Apple and Amy Wood on drums, with Davíd Garza and Sebastian Steinberg joining them on percussion and Steinberg also on bass. Apple, Wood, Dave Way and John Would recorded it, and Way mixed.

That fits the album, which was cut mostly at Apple's home in Venice, Los Angeles, between 2015 and 2020, much of it in GarageBand, and which is ruled by unconventional percussion, found objects included, that she dubbed "percussion orchestras". The album went on to win the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.