Fiona Apple Returns With First New Song in 5 Years, “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)”: Listen

Fiona Apple has launched her first tune since Fetch the Bolt Cutters. “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home),” a protest anthem advocating for jailed moms who can’t afford bail, attracts on Apple’s expertise in recent times observing bail hearings for CourtWatch PG, a Maryland neighborhood preventing racism within the courtroom and dealing in the direction of “abolitionist futures.” Apple wrote the tune after witnessing the impression—and the disproportionate impression on Black ladies—of a cash-bail system that jails moms who can’t afford bail with out trial, separating them from their dependents. Under, watch the video, which collages footage from ladies who’ve skilled pretrial detention.

In a press release, Apple described taking notes on hundreds of bond hearings:

Time and time once more, I listened as folks had been taken away and put in jail, for no different motive than that they couldn’t afford to purchase their approach free. It was notably onerous to listen to moms and caretakers get taken away from the individuals who rely on them. For the previous 5 years, I’ve been volunteering with the Free Black Mamas DMV bailout, and I’ve been fortunate to have the ability to witness the tales of ladies who fought for and received their freedom with the tireless and loving help of the management. I hope that this tune, and the photographs shared with me, may also help to indicate what’s at stake when somebody is saved in pretrial detention. I give this tune in friendship and respect to all who’ve skilled the ache of pretrial detention and to the ladies of the group’s management who’ve taught me a lot and whom I actually love.