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Every week, Consequence’s Songs of the Week column spotlights the best new tracks from the previous seven days and takes a look at notable releases. Find our new favorites and more on our Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, you can listen to our New Sounds playlist. This week, Grammy-winning artist Fiona Apple sheds light on the devastating impact of the United States’ cash-bail system.
Since releasing her exceptional 2020 album Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple has not exactly been seeking the spotlight. Sure, there’s been a handful of guest appearances and one-off releases, right up until her recent cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” for a tribute album this month. But despite her lack of new music, Apple has remained busy; mainly through her civic mission of being a court-watcher in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
This mission, and the hours and hours that she’s now spent watching trials begin and end, have brought Apple face-to-face with the American justice system and all of its flaws. It’s been particularly astounding for Apple to witness the amount of people — specifically women, and Black women at that — put and kept in jail because they cannot afford bail, despite them being presumed innocent.
“I was a court watcher for over two years,” Apple wrote in a press release. “In that time, I took notes on thousands of bond hearings. Time and time again, I listened as people were taken away and put in jail, for no other reason than that they couldn’t afford to buy their way free.” “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home),” Apple’s first original recording in five years, is inspired by these harrowing realizations.
These women, many mothers of young children living paycheck-to-paycheck, are having their lives completely upended by the cash-bail system; if they’re kept in jail because they can’t make bail, Apple reminds us, they cannot work, they cannot parent their children and take them to school, they cannot take care of the elderly that rely on them, and they cannot pay rent. One thing snowballs into another, and by the time court proceedings are over, these women and their families may not even have homes to return to. “She was not convicted of anything,” Apple sings twice to hammer home how ludicrous the consequences are for these innocent women. “Won’t you let her go home?”
The sentiment is powerful on its own, but Apple also provides rich instrumentation and dynamic, sweetened vocal harmonies to help drive home the fact that this broken system affects all of us. Like some of the best songs off Fetch the Bolt Cutters, there’s a huge emphasis on percussion and momentum, tapping into a charged energy that doesn’t always come across in Apple’s steady alto; the percussion is so quick and busy that it paints these situations in a maddening light. Meanwhile, Apple’s harmony-laden repetitions and clear, concise narration brings a communal feel, expounding this injustice like it couldn’t be any more obvious.
She’s right — these kinds of transgressions happen every day, in every state, right underneath our noses. Apple’s urgency isn’t just a byproduct of her raw songwriting style, it’s a genuine call to action. With “Pretrial,” she’s deeply determined to honor the legions of women whose lives have been unfairly shaken by the system in support of the Free Black Mamas DMV initiative. In doing so, she’s written a stunning summation of their hardships, journeys, and resilience.
Listen to Fiona Apple’s new songs on Amazon Music. Sign up now to receive one free month and a 30% discount on select merch.
— Paolo Ragusa
Associate Editor
English (US) · 