It was produced and performed by Apple alongside Amy Aileen Wood, Sebastian Steinberg and Davíd Garza; the recording consisted of long, often improvised takes with unconventional percussive sounds.

GarageBand was used for much of this recording, and Fiona Apple credited the album's unedited vocals and long takes to her lack of expertise with the program.

While conventional instruments, such as pianos and drum sets, do appear, the album also features prominent use of non-musical found objects as percussion.

The album explores freedom from oppression; Apple identified its core message as: "Fetch the fucking bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation you're in".

[4] They began writing and rehearsing in Apple's Venice Beach home studio, using home-made percussive objects and chanting as they marched around the house.

[1] They recorded long takes consisting of instruments being hit against surfaces and objects; her vocals were unedited, and the album developed a highly percussive sound.

[12] Apple has attributed the album's prominent use of percussion to a childhood habit, developed as a part of her obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which she would always walk rhythmically to a strict tempo.

[22] Jon Pareles of The New York Times found that "whether she's cooing with sarcastic solicitousness or rasping close to a scream, she articulates every word clearly, emoting but never losing control".

[11] Lyrically, Apple identified the album's main theme as "not being afraid to speak",[3] with Barton similarly recognizing "a refusal to be silenced".

[22] Apple later said that this was an oversimplification, elaborating that "it's about breaking out of whatever prison you've allowed yourself to live in", and pinpointing the message as: "Fetch the fucking bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation you're in".

[6] Pareles found that the album explored "both past and present injuries: bullying, sexual assault, destructive mind games, romantic debacles, [Apple's] own fears and compulsions and the people who have taken advantage of them".

[23] According to Maura Johnston of The Boston Globe, the song "shines a harsh spotlight on the way women are casually and cruelly pitted against each other in the game of love".

The second verse, including the line "The bottom begins to feel like the only safe place that you know", was partially inspired by an episode of television series The Affair.

[24] The track's depiction of a man's abuse of a woman is based, with permission, on the stories told to Apple by a friend who worked as an intern at a film production company.

Good mornin' / You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in", was partly written in response to the nomination of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh, despite allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

It begins as "a kind of playground chant", and then a "rebuking tribal cheer",[11] before "it shape-shifts into a fever dream, the backing vocals eventually settling into an abstracted wail".

[23] Caramanica highlighted a "fascinating, circular pattern in the vocal rhythms; incisive and destabilizing percussion; plenty of empty space that leaves room for shock", comparing the effect to the lyrical experimentation of independent hip hop in the late 1990s.

[6] Critics have commented on the timeliness of releasing the album during the pandemic, finding thematic relevance in its exploration of confinement, and comparing Apple's reclusiveness to the widespread self-isolation restrictions.

[33] Fetch the Bolt Cutters was met with universal acclaim, with many critics deeming it an instant classic, a masterpiece, and Apple's best work to date.

"[19][48][49] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that "It's rare to listen to a pop album and have no idea what comes next, and Fetch the Bolt Cutters delivers surprises that delight and bruise at a rapid pace".

[43] Critic Robert Christgau lauded Fiona Apple's virtuosic musicianship and assigned the album an A rating, "The music grows on you before you realize it because it's not hooky in a hummy kind of way.

[50] Maura Johnston of The Boston Globe applauded the album for its "matter-of-fact depictions of everyday brutality", and added that "even [during] the most intense moments of Fetch, her lyrics retain a playfulness that acts as a ballast."

She also commended Apple's "husky alto", which "remains the focal point, launching into melodies that are instantly sticky as effortlessly as it engages in tensely rhythmic Sprechstimme.

"[24] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the "stunning intimacy of the material here—a rich text to scour", adding "you'd need to go back to the later parts of Nina Simone's catalog to find another pop vocalist as eager as Apple is to make such a show of unprettiness.

"[13] Time critic Judy Berman similarly praised the album for its "lyrics that scan as prose more often than poetry, [which] creates a rare intimacy", and commented that "As beautiful as the melodies and the epiphanies they carry often are, the songs are not what you would call 'pretty.' ...

[51] Patrick Ryan of USA Today described the album as "a dense and richly poetic masterpiece from one of music's best modern storytellers" with "razor-sharp statements and evocative lyrics that reveal themselves in every new listen".

[22] Kitty Empire of sister publication The Observer described the album as "a strange and exceptional record, even within the context of an uncommon career".

[21] For NME, Charlotte Krol wrote that the album "will cut straight to the gut for Apple fans old and new and leave behind indelible messages about her life and illustrious career, now spanning two decades.

[68] Three months earlier, in an interview with The Guardian, she stated that she had wished to have been able to celebrate with other nominees in the Best Rock Performance category which, for the first time in history, were all women.

Apple went on to state that, in case of her victory, her vision was that "I would just get up there with a sledgehammer and I wouldn't say anything, I would take the Grammy and smash it into enough pieces to share and I would invite all the ladies up.