Fiona Apple has returned with a new song, ‘Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)’. A protest anthem about a woman unable to make bail, it marks the singer-songwriter’s first solo original track since 2020’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters. The song, which is completely raw and to the point, arrives with a music video filmed by Zealous founder Scott Hechinger. Made in support of the Free Black Mamas DMV initiative, it uses home footage of women who have been detained before trial. Check it out below.
Apple has also launched Let Her Go Home website where you can donate, find local bail funds, and learn more about court-watching. She previously scored and narrated a PSA about the subject. Discussing the new song and the cause behind it, she said:
I was a court watcher for over two years. In that time, I took notes on thousands of bond hearings. Time and time again, I listened as people were taken away and put in jail, for no other reason than that they couldn’t afford to buy their way free. It was particularly hard to hear mothers and caretakers get taken away from the people who depend on them. For the past five years, I have been volunteering with the Free Black Mamas DMV bailout, and I have been lucky to be able to witness the stories of women who fought for and won their freedom with the tireless and loving support of the leadership. I hope that this song, and the images shared with me, can help to show what is at stake when someone is kept in pretrial detention. I give this song in friendship and respect to all who have experienced the pain of pretrial detention and to the women of the group’s leadership who have taught me so much and whom I truly love.
Earlier this year, Fiona Apple teamed up with the Waterboys for ‘Letter From an Unknown Girlfriend’ and covered Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’.
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