You could also think of her as Taylor Swift's brainier, gloomier big sister. An anti-pop hero with serious love scars, Apple, now 34, has made four albums in 16 years. She doesn't need limelight to live. Her reclusiveness is legend; during her breaks, she'll do a live gig, a cameo, but mostly she vanishes. Seven years passed before she released her latest album, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.
