Editing Extraordinary Machine (section)

==Background and production==
After completing a [[concert tour]] in support of her second album ''[[When the Pawn...]]'' (1999) in 2000, Fiona Apple relocated to [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]. "The first couple of years [after ''Pawn''], I didn't have anything left in me to write about ... I just figured if the songs came to me, they came to me, and if not, 'Oh, well, it's been fun'", she said.<ref name="RollingStone Sept-2005">{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |first=Austin |last=Scaggs |date=August 30, 2005 |title=Fiona Talks "Machine" |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theroots/articles/story/7595844/fiona_talks_machine |access-date=4 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509153700/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theroots/articles/story/7595844/fiona_talks_machine |archive-date=May 9, 2006 |url-status=dead |ref=RollingStone Sept-2005 }}</ref> During her hiatus, Apple contemplated retiring from her recording career. In spring 2002 Apple and [[Jon Brion]], her longtime friend and producer on ''When the Pawn'', met for their weekly lunch meeting. Brion's five-year relationship with comedian [[Mary Lynn Rajskub]] had abruptly ended during the shooting of the [[Paul Thomas Anderson]] film ''[[Punch-Drunk Love]]'' (2002), which Brion was [[film score|scoring]]. He reportedly "begged" Apple to make another album after being forced to watch hours of footage of Rajskub while working on the film: "I need work that can save me". Apple agreed, and Brion went to Apple's label, [[Epic Records]], with strict stipulations (including no deadline), to which the label eventually agreed. A tentative November 2002 release date was then set.

After performing the then-untitled "[[Not About Love]]" at a Brion concert in February, Apple started studio work on the album the following June at [[Ocean Way Recording]], where she played for Brion the first five songs she had written for the album. She debuted the song "A New Version of Me" (later renamed "Better", and then "Better Version of Me") live at [[Largo (nightclub)|Club Largo]]—where Brion has a regular Friday-night gig, often joined by musical friends—in August.<ref>Lane. [http://www.fionaapple.org/2002/07/first-of-all-i-apologize-for-being-so.html "Untitled"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050924023246/http://www.fionaapple.org/2002/07/first-of-all-i-apologize-for-being-so.html |date=2005-09-24 }}. ''FionaApple.org''. July 22, 2002. Retrieved September 1, 2005.</ref><!-- $$ hiding info that reader might not need to know $$ Performed solo at the piano, one fan present described it as a "very fast, angry song".<ref>Lane. [http://www.fionaapple.org/2002/08/fiona-on-new-johnny-cash-album.html "Fiona on New Johnny Cash Album"]. ''FionaApple.org''. August 15, 2002. Retrieved September 1, 2005.</ref> A reworked version of the song was performed at Largo, with Brion on the [[celesta|celeste]], on September 13 (Apple's twenty-fifth birthday).<ref>Lane. [http://www.fionaapple.org/2002/09/fiona-celebrated-her-birthday-at-club.html "Untitled"]. ''FionaApple.org''. September 18, 2002. Retrieved September 1, 2005.</ref>

--> By late 2002, Apple, Brion, engineer Tom Biller and percussionist [[Matt Chamberlain]] were at work in a wing of the [[Paramour Mansion]], which was built in 1923 by silent film star [[Antonio Moreno]]; the four used the building as a temporary residence from early 2003, and Chamberlain said the experience of recording there was "completely amazing"<!--, though production had been halted at one point whilst Apple received medical treatment for a dog bite on her arm-->. With the album half complete in April 2003, Brion, Apple and Biller worked <!--with assistant Steven Rhodes -->at Cello Studios, and a new release date of July 22 was announced. Brion and Apple then travelled to England later that month, to record strings and orchestration for the songs at [[Abbey Road Studios]] in [[London]]. The album was completed from Brion's perspective by May 2003, at which point the release was pushed back to September 30. But by fall 2003, Apple and Brion were back in the recording studio adding finishing touches to the album, thus forcing back the release date to February 2004 (this was later changed to "early 2004").

Little by little, small details about the songs were revealed through newspaper and magazine articles. An August 2003 article on Jon Brion in ''[[The New York Times]]'' revealed the title of another song on the album, "Oh Well", with Brion stating that he cried the first time he heard Apple play it. Brion worked solidly on "Oh Well" for over a week, and would later refer to it as the album's "problem child". The November 13, 2003 issue of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' reported that the album was "definitely eclectic" and quoted Apple admitting that the album was "all over the place". The slow-paced track "Extraordinary" was referred to as "a [[Tin Pan Alley]]-esque blend of [[Tom Waits]] and [[Vaudeville]]", while the much more energetic "Better" was described as "an [[OutKast]]-like deluge of beats".<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=October 17, 2003 |last=Baltin |first=Steve |title=Fiona Apple Ripe for Return |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/fionaapple/articles/story/5936930/fiona_apple_ripe_for_return |access-date=1 September 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114110638/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/fionaapple/articles/story/5936930/fiona_apple_ripe_for_return |archive-date=2009-01-14 }}</ref> In February 2004, an item in ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' magazine confirmed the title of the album and a new song, "Red, Red, Red", which Apple said was inspired by a book about optical illusions.<ref>{{Cite journal |journal=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |volume=20 |issue=3 |date=March 2004 |page=22 |first=Mark |last=Spitz |title=noise: backstage pass: Suddenly Girl, Interrupted |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9VQ5UluNUkIC&pg=PA22 |access-date=8 December 2011 }}</ref>