"Extraordinary Machine," Apple's third studio release, has been the subject of some grass-roots controversy. The album, issued by Epic Records, hit stores Tuesday (10/4). Early versions of the album's tracks, produced by Jon Brion, were leaked to the Internet over the last year as fans lobbied for the album's release, but Apple later re-recorded most of the set with producers Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew.

A fan-run website dubbed FreeFiona.com claimed last year that Epic rejected the Brion-produced version of "Extraordinary Machine" in 2003--a claim the label has denied. At one point, the site encouraged Apple's supporters to "send something with an apple theme--a fake apple, a real apple, a photo of an apple, a piece of paper with an apple sticker, a sketch of an apple, even an apple pie--be creative!--to [Chairman and CEO] Andy Lack at [Epic's corporate parent] Sony with a note attached."

Despite the campaign, Apple reportedly wasn't entirely happy with the original version of the album, and quietly re-worked much of it this year.

"Now that my album is finally finished, I am very, very excited to have people hear what we did--I am so proud of it, and all of us who worked on it," Apple said in a press release touting the new album.

Ultimately, the controversy may be a good thing for the sales of Extraordinary Machine. The set currently sits at No. 1 on the iTunes Music Store's sales chart.