I love Fiona Apple because her music feels like heart wrapped in darkness and darkness wrapped in heart — a blend that speaks to the scared yet open souls.

She feels it all, and she brings that raw humanness to her music, a humanness that aches with wanting. She doesn’t try to fit into one mould. She is both soft and fierce, hopeless and hopeful.

Her earlier music suggests that although she gives herself permission to be and feel it all, it is a chaotic and hard life. And this is something I resonate deeply with. I’ve often been scared of my big emotions, and how they impact my relationship to the world.

However, in her latest album, Apple expresses finding peace by “Moving with the trees in the breeze,” which I imagine are her big shifting emotions. She has only ended up where she is because she never denies any part of herself. And yet, despite everything she’s discovered, her heart still yearns, endlessly searching for connection: “And while I’m in this body, I want somebody to want, and I want what I want, and I want you.”

Her music is this constant companion in the process of being human, a place where even darkness is allowed, even celebrated, because it’s a part of what it means to want deeply, feel deeply, live fully. It is music for the ones who know longing, but refuse to let it harden them.

Apple is not just expressing emotions, she is inviting anyone listening to embrace theirs, even when they’re messy or contradictory.

Her music tells me to allow myself to be and feel it all, and that I’m on a path toward love and understanding by doing so.