I can’t believe in three-plus years of writing this blog I haven’t once focused on Fiona Apple. Today, I’m addressing that oversight, because 11 years ago this week, Apple released her sophomore LP, When The Pawn…

Remember all the hubbub over the album’s way-lengthy name, a poem that consisted of over 400 characters? At the time, When The Pawn… held the record for the world’s longest album title (though I just shorthanded it even more). In 2007, DJ outfit Soulwax usurped Apple’s throne with their 552-character remix complilation, and a year later, Chumbawamba (remember this?) trumped them both with a title that had an 865-character count.

Returning to the reason for this post, “Paper Bag” was the track on Apple’s When The Pawn… that I couldn’t stop playing. The song was a nice thematic fit for the fake movie-soundtrack mix CD I made at the time (for which there was no fake movie). Years later, actor Zach Braff put “Paper Bag” on the soundtrack for his 2006 film, The Last Kiss, and I couldn’t help but feel he’d somehow plucked my idea from the conscious universe. And “Paper Bag” wasn’t his only musical selection so closely (and frustratingly) aligned with my own soundtrack dreams. Rufus Wainwright’s “Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk,” Snow Patrol’s “Chocolate,” Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek,” and Rachael Yamagata’s “Reason Why,” were all tunes I too held a close affinity for. (Damn you, Zach Braff!)

But again, I digress. When The Pawn… is a brilliant album that’s forever associated with fall for me because of its original release date, and “Paper Bag,” in particular. The song’s shuffling beat and muted horn arrangement provide the real autumnal-sounding touches, conjuring up the image of walking along a leaf-strewn path with one’s throughts as sole companion. It’s a perfectly lovely little tune.

The music video for “Paper Bag” plays a little like Newsies, with its old-timey feel and an all-boys cast of backing dancers (who thankfully don’t sing here). With Apple at the core of this clip, looking fantastic in bright red, this nearly-four minute musical sequence seems part of a larger, unseen whole. “Paper Bag” presents something of a fleeting fantasy, which is also a wonderful way to consider the quickly vanishing magic of fall:

“Paper Bag” earned Fiona Apple a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, but she lost to Sheryl Crow’s “There Goes The Neighborhood.” (She had won in the same category a few years before with “Criminal.”) When The Pawn… competed in the Best Alternative Album category, but Radiohead’s Kid A took the prize.

Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend loves him some Fiona Apple, as does Kelly Rowland. No doubt they join the chorus of fans excited by the news that the singer-songwriter is readying a new album (crazily just her fourth) for a spring 2011 release.

Purchase Fiona Apple – “Paper Bag” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.