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

Fiona Apple has released her first song since Fetch the Bolt Cutters. “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home),” a protest anthem advocating for jailed mothers who can’t afford bail, draws on Apple’s experience in recent years observing bail hearings for CourtWatch PG, a Maryland community fighting racism in the courtroom and working towards “abolitionist futures.” Apple wrote the song after witnessing the impact—and the disproportionate impact on Black women—of a cash-bail system that jails mothers who can’t afford bail without trial, separating them from their dependents. Below, watch the video, which collages footage from women who have experienced pretrial detention.

In a statement, Apple described taking 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.