This month Fiona Apple released her fifth album, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” an event that was received with significant awe and rapturous praise. Apple often takes her time between records — her previous one, “The Idler Wheel …,” was released in 2012 — but the greeting she received was about much more than a long absence.

Early in her career, following the wild success of her 1996 debut “Tidal,” Apple was vivid and intense in her choice of subject matter, and vocal about her pop-star reluctance. She was often met with resistance in the male-dominated music press. But in the decades that have passed, Apple’s singular vision has remained firm, and she’s become a role model for generations of artists in her wake.

On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Apple’s career, and about the music on “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” which is uninhibited, flexible and free.

Guests: