Feist--The Reminder

i'd like this more if it was el perro del mar woman singing

This is really lovely, but I'd kind of like her to up the tempo a bit more often. My attention drifts a bit on the slower ones.

yeah, she needs to get off the slow ballad kick.

"The first two songs—"So Sorry," which features backing vocals and, uh, "energy arrangement" courtesy of Jamie Lidell, and "I Feel It All"—aren't bad, but they're middling at best; though jangly uptempo ditties are nothing new for the Canadian singer-songwriter, it's these kinds of songs, seemingly constructed for radio play (this is her major label debut), that mar the otherwise radiant Reminder."

^disagree w/ this notion 100%.

what is wrong with slow songs?

"limit to your love" is far and away the best song on the album.

what is wrong with slow songs?

In this case, they're too, uh, slow. The fast and midtempo ones are all incredible here, but the slow ones drag the record down a bit.

Yeah, I Feel It All is a real album high for me.

1 2 3 4 is cool

The video is a lot of fun too.

i'd like this more if it was el perro del mar woman singing

crazy talk!

i find feist lady's voice a bit dull compared to epdm lady's novel brittleness but her songs are better than epdm lady's.

I need to work out why I find Let It Die really compelling and this one really boring ("My Moon My Man" aside). The answer may well be: less Gonzalez this time out.

I also like how she's singing live in a lot of her promo clips.

Jeff W: it's the production, no? Let it Die is sort of a marvel of easy-listening production--it's all so shiny. This sounds more indie and, uh, 'organic', and doesn't pull me in as much.

Yes, that could well be it!

That's what I really like about the production, although I would say less indie more Dusty in Memphis sounding.

xposts
wut, seriously!?

LET IT DIE = snoooooozefest brunch music sleepytime yawn let's be "classy" and talk about ex-boyfriends who just moved to budapest (wtf?)

THE REMINDER = mysterious, hidden, sensuous, whispered promise. <B>SO</B> much better. other than the two or three songs that sound like LET IT DIE.

I totally agree with G00blar on this.

This album has stuck with me pretty well, but it doesn't demand that I put it on over and over. The first 2/3s is really pretty terrific, but it goes downhill after 1 2 3 4. Limit To Your Love . . . . eh.

I thought "I Feel It All" was going to be this year's version of the KT Tunstall song that got stuck on everything last year, but it isn't quite that strong. That, 1 2 3 4, and My Moon My Man are plenty enough to make this an excellent album, though. I like the two slow waltzes in the first half, too, but it was a mistake to stick them next to each other in the sequencing.

One thing that I find mildly interesting: for such an acclaimed songwriter, she's really a weak lyricist. There's not that much in these songs to engage the verbal half of my brain.

That, 1 2 3 4, and My Moon My Man are plenty enough to make this an excellent album, though.

three songs make an excellent album? c'maaan!

i really like this album. brandy alexander is lovely. her voice sounds so, so good on this record.

"i feel it all" = one of the songs of the year.
also amazing: "my moon my man" (sexiest song ever for me right now), "brandy alexander", "1234", "so sorry"...

Don't get me wrong, I *like* the new one (esp I feel it all), I like it a lot. But Let it Die has some of my favorite production work of any album over the past decade--it is "classy", it just totally nails that sleek a.o.r. sound--it goes for it.

i guess in that way it's comparative to the last Cat Power - or, frankly, the first Norah Jones? of the three of them i just personally love the Norah Jones one by far the most.

Fair enough, I like that production too. I'm really taken, though, by the disco and soft-soul elements (on Inside Out, obvs, but also, One Evening and Leisure Suite).

you should check out the first Thicke album, maybe.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/pic200/drp400/p420/p42021rb6df.jpg?

"past in present" is ridiculously underrated

The Reminder is so much more powerful than the first record. I keep on getting ambushed by 'Intuition' on random iPod flytes, and knocked out by the bit where she sings "it's impossible to tell, how you might have changed it all, how you might have changed it all for him..." and then the choir just kind of drifts in, like they've been eavesdropping all along. I interviewed her and asked her "how can you write such a heartbroken song, and then have to sing it every night on tour - aren't you just prolonging the agony?" and she said, "oh it's not heartbroken at all - I think that's just you reading too much into it"!

Actually I was totally unfair on the slower songs here - maybe what I was trying to say is that 'The Water' is a bit boring. Listening to Lambchop's 'Is A Woman' this morning led me to draw a few parallels, especially some of the flourishes on 'Brandy Alexander'.

'Limit To Your Love' is lush, but I can't quite rid myself of the nagging suspicion that her voice is a little too 'nice' to really suit that sort of torch song.

But yes I agree with Stevie and Sean about this record vs Let It Die.

I liked this album better before I realized that the song that got me into it -- "1, 2, 3, 4" -- was written by New Buffalo. There's something a little depressing about being converted to liking someone and then realizing you were secretly just continuing to enjoy a songwriter you already loved.

I do still like the album, though.

this really doesn't do it for me at all. there's no personality in her voice! it's like she constantly shushing herself, and not in a good way.

..."1, 2, 3, 4" -- was written by New Buffalo...

Actually, Seltmann co-wrote "1, 2, 3, 4" with Feist. Maybe a little less depressing?

Nup - Seltmann wrote the song and gave it to Feist, who then changed a couple of bits.

changed a couple of bits

I've only taken a few IP classes, but my limited understanding of copyright law would seem to classify "back in 2005, Sally Seltmann wrote the song '1234' for...Feist. Feist added a few of her own lyrics and recorded the song..." as a work of co-authorship. But I suppose it's possible that to co-author ≠ to co-write.

otm

YouTube

Feist's was on "Late Show With David Letterman" this week.

I find myself coming back to this record more than anything else this year - still not too hot on The Water or Intuition, but otherwise this is probably my album of the year.

I was so wrong about Limit To Your Love.

'Intuition' is stunning but who wrote it? assuming it wasn't Erlend Oye but first him singing it over Ada's 'Lucky Charm' on his DJ Kicks from three years ago.

never mind i see it was listed in the DJ Kicks as 'a cover of a yet unreleased song written by Feist'. wonder how old the other songs are!

live, she was playing songs that ended up on this two to three years ago, but not all of them. I have to check my minidisc (from TWO YEARS AGO EXACTLY TONIGHT) and see if there's an early version of 1 2 3 4, I'm sure she talked about semi-writing with Sexsmith and Seltmann.

I didn't make that Erland Oye connection at all. Might have to listen to that mix again this evening.

This is the most painful introduction / short Q&A session EVER:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/47613-feist-ft-members-of-grizzly-bear-1234-live-on-the-today-show

good version of the song tho.

has ended up as my favourite 07 album

This album holds up really well. There is a ton of space in these songs. Unhurried and gorgeous.

Yeah, I actually listened to it a few weeks ago for the first time in a long while and I was surprised how well it had aged.