Defend the Indefensible: Feist's "1234"

OK, I'll bite: Feist didn't "author" it, so it's not her fault.

Defend the Indefensible: Feist.

I haven't heard enough to make it about her in general, but I don't feel inspired to hear more.

yeah, 1234 sucks, but i've seen her twice, shes alright.

File this (and Samim's "Heater") under Music That Sounds Tailor-made for Adverts.

yeah, 1234 sucks, but i've seen her twice, shes alright.

-- swinburningforyou, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 1:57 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Don't See Feist Twice, It's Alright

whoo alright yeah uh huh

This song is great and the person who wrote it is even greater!!!

i like it

what a weird and wrong thing to consider indefensible!

yeah the defend the indefensible threads work best on aggressively ubiquitous things, i think (which this song isn't, so wtf)

ya like creed.

as far as npr lifestyle music goes feist is good.

Her album keeps popping up on end of the year lists, she is ubiquitous in that sense.

yeah the defend the indefensible threads work best on aggressively ubiquitous things, i think (which this song isn't, so wtf)

-- impudent harlot, Tuesday, 4 December 2007 19:18 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

rong

I was in the DUMBO West Elm watching stroller-pushing condo-dwellers tap their toes to the beat of Sealion Woman while admiring antler lamps when it finally dawned on me: Feist's The Reminder is totally the Speakerboxx/The Love Below of Summer 2007.

which this song isn't

Did you not watch (American) television a couple months back? Seriously that iPod commercial ran about a bajillion times a day.

which part dom?

and for fuck's sake it's hardly at "hey ya" levels

that's truly dumb shit.

It's maybe the fourth or fifth best song on the record, but I kind of love that it made the Billboard top 10.

It's totally ubiquitous, and it sucks. The same sentence can be said for that stupid Hey Ya song.

"Hey Ya" is a much better song.

"Hey Ya" was also a cross-format radio smash, not a fluke top 10 based on iTunes sales goosed by an iTunes commercial on TV.

"Hey Ya" was also a cross-format wedding dj smash

also an ironic indie cover version smash

Is this song really ubiquitous? I don't think I've yet heard it anywhere - radio, tv, clothing stores, etc. I kind of like the song myself.

fluke top 10 based on iTunes sales goosed by an iTunes commercial on TV.

I don't think this kind of exposure leading to success is much of a "fluke" anymore. "cross-format radio smash" becomes more of an obsolete concept by the day.

i'm not how ubiquitous commercials are any different than, say, ubiquitous music videos insofar as exposing people to a song they end up liking.

"Hey Ya" is a much better song"

Damning with faint praise

The difference is, I've heard every other top 10 hit of the year in full, but I've only heard the 10 seconds of the Feist that are in the TV ad.

I've heard every other top 10 hit of the year in full

Really? Well done.

good song good remix good video good feist

i'm not how ubiquitous commercials are any different than, say, ubiquitous music videos insofar as exposing people to a song they end up liking.

They still play commercials on TV.

This song is really good.

the album is pretty nice sometimes, good sort of laurel canyon vibe to it.

Intuition is one of the best songs of all time.

This chicken stew I'm eating for dinner is also pretty awesome.

i was looking at the cd booklet and i guess ron sexsmith co-wrote "brandy alexander"...that makes sense.

I've heard every other top 10 hit of the year in full

Really? Well done.

-- jaymc, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 3:19 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

haha maybe not literally, i'd have to check to be sure. i just mean i probably encountered all the others on a (non-AAA) radio station or a video channel, but the only time i hear the Feist song is in the ad.

Spencer OTM: Sally Seltmann's a fucking champ, and this year's New Bufallo album has gotten a lot more play with me than the Feist one. (Ha: it's like it takes all the intimacy and honesty and personal emotion and comfy balladry that acts like Feist are ostensibly meant to provide and then DOES provide them, a LOT, to the point where it feels practically edgy and offputting about it.)

I like that Nina Simone song on the Feist record.

this was my hangover jam of the year

That said, I'm not sure what the original ASSAULT on this song is supposed to be -- it mostly seems like people don't enjoy Seltmann's knack for pleased-with-self Music for Skipping colliding with the demographic that listens to Feist and is always accused of being smug even when NOT listening to pleased-with-self Music for Skipping. But it's not smug, it's just a weird gift of Seltmann's, to write songs that sound exactly like songs you'd sing to yourself while walking around and happy, and since she balances them with songs about self-loathing and alcoholism that sound more like what you'd sing to yourself after self-injuring, there doesn't seem to be anything cloying about it. This song's got that first quality locked up, and I really like the way Feist delivers it, to be honest; it's better suited with her pro approach than the minimzed piano or samples that Seltmann would wind up doing it in. I hope she writes a lot more skippy songs for other people and winds up making more money than her Avalanche husband.

this is like "defend the indefensible: wheat toast" or something

well for one it goes well with eggs and bacon.

yeah, 1234 sucks, but i've seen her twice, shes alright.

-- swinburningforyou, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 6:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

i always love when songs get so big like this and they make people start saying that one of an artists best songs is actually one of their worst.

"hey ya" did that, like oh dude i don't like that catchy awesome album song i really like a love below for all the half-ass price bullshit

half-price ass bullshit

More New Buffalo singing-to-self: http://youtube.com/watch?v=q-wpN3bOBNA

Full video for "Recovery" not available, only clip! Lame: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rlYSnLiPv7I

I just hate the fucking commercial. I've never heard the song. I can tell I hate it based on the commercial, if that's fair. It's probably not.

half-ass price bullshit

in brighter days this would have ascended to instant memehood

also I would once again like to call for an immediate and now permanent moratorium on "captain save-a" [insert quantity], it is played the fuck out

not hating btw matt this is just another pointless gripe of mine

whatever, captain save-a-meme

yeah, and i'm more a brigadier general

Great tune

insinuating that ILX isn't more meme-happy than ever is pretty offbase. as is the idea that turning every typo into a running gag somehow signifies "brighter days."

cap'n-hate-a-sav'n-cap'n

I still would love to see a truthful percentage of how many people here scan "Captain Save A Hoe" as an E-40 song or as just another wacky ILX meme.

i misspelled "prince"

(and also i just had to double check that i wasn't misspelling "misspelled")

i don't get why that was so funny like half-ass kelly price or something? vincent price?

Nabisco, have you heard the St. Vincent album?

no like the special half-ass price you can only get from wacky zondo's half-ass records & tapes

I can't remember this song. I remember that mushaboom or whatever song tho.

haha maybe not literally, i'd have to check to be sure. i just mean i probably encountered all the others on a (non-AAA) radio station or a video channel, but the only time i hear the Feist song is in the ad.

-- Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 8:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Alex, perhaps for your radio column over at Idolator you could ask that Clear Channel content guru quoted in that December 2nd(?) NY Times article why certain songs do or do not get programmed on Baltimore and Washington (and elsewhere) corporate radio even though Apple has no problem featuring them nonstop in tv commercials. Just an idea, not being snarky.

insinuating that ILX isn't more meme-happy than ever is pretty offbase. as is the idea that turning every typo into a running gag somehow signifies "brighter days."

that's not my insinuation though - only that the quoted phrase might be memeworthy but probably wouldn't be picked up. As usual, you've landed on a weightless one-line bad joke as if it were a serious attempt at criticism. My suggestion to you Alex is that you lighten the fuck up and if you have some gripe with me, take it to email instead of snapping like a puppy every time I say something you don't like.

I learned about Captain Save-a-Ho when Ethan told me to go listen to some E-40 a couple of years ago, and did not imply that it was an ilx meme but that it's an overused one here. Dude.

Ou sont les memes d'antan?

lavando sus sombreros, sin duda

Meme von Gestern.

This song is brilliant. Maybe it got overplayed and people don't like it, but its still a lovely song. I don't really see how it could be so contentious. I love it.

I've never really heard "1234" up close yet 'cause the radio at work's always on a fairly low volume. All I can really say is that (a) the opening seconds achieve a level of nauseating/enthralling preciousness I've not heard since "Tom's Diner" and (b) the orchestrations kinda remind me of certain Bacharach-David productions from the '60s. But I'm on shaky ground here. I should listen closer. (Think I'll steal it)

The advert plays way too often on UK TV, so I am really fed up with this song without actually hearing it. One of my wife's friends in Vancouver sent us a copy of the Feist album ages ago but we never got round to listening to it.

BTW I didn't know Capn-Save-A-Ho was from an E-40 song! I knew it wasn't an ILX thing though. What album's it on?

I must watch too much TV, 'cause the song seems absolutely ubiquitous to me. Not only the commercial, but in her guest performances on seemingly every talk show. Wheezier and wheezier performances, showcasing her labored range, and her <i>own</i> apparent boredom with the song.

Rational observation or not, the song reminds me of the most tepid 1970s singer-songwriters.

NYT: Feist, the future of world pop?

I'm still trying to adjust to the idea that reminding one of Bacharach/David orchestrations could be seen as a *bad* thing.

Gorgeous. Love the song, love the arrangement, love the vocal, love the video, loved Feist's intimate live show at The Social on the evening it went UK Top 40. One of my singles of the year. Couldn't give a stuff about how many adverts and talk shows it has been on, as I almost never watch adverts (the wonders of the digi-box be praised) and rarely watch talk shows.

yeah this song is great, and the album's not half bad either. i bought the album for my girlfriend a few months back, and my god, it especially shines in comparison to the michael bublé, pink martini and aqualung stuff she usually plays. therefore feist makes me happy.

haha woah, totally missed J0hn D. freaking out on me yesterday! don't take it personal dude. I'll repeat what I said last time someone thought I was singling them out for zings/criticism: I try to be a dick to everybody here in equal measure but sometimes people get seconds.

Alex, perhaps for your radio column over at Idolator you could ask that Clear Channel content guru quoted in that December 2nd(?) NY Times article why certain songs do or do not get programmed on Baltimore and Washington (and elsewhere) corporate radio even though Apple has no problem featuring them nonstop in tv commercials. Just an idea, not being snarky.

-- curmudgeon, Tuesday, December 4, 2007 5:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

well, like I said, the Feist song only really falls into the AAA format, which I don't really cover (although I might try sometime). I remember Chris saying that that song was charting almost entirely on downloads and not spins, though. I just somehow doubt it's getting played on pop stations everywhere but where I live, but I could be wrong.

I'm with Nate from the other direction: what in the world is wrong with "Tom's Diner?" Let's save the kneejerk Must Hate Women's Singer-Songwriter Material thing for people who are actually bad/boring at it

Jaymc: Like the St. Vincent a lot; like St Vincent a lot, especially since seeing her "I Dig a Pony" covers; definitely a sight less boring / more personality-filled than anything I've ever gotten out of Feist. There are a few things about the album that don't entirely come together, I don't think? But it's got enough great ideas packed in there that I'm assuming the next one (or the one after that) will be like POW

I love this song, but haven't actually heard it out and about or on TV very much at all. It's nowhere near Hey Ya levels of ubiquity.

nabisco do you like cortney tidwell?

Results 1 - 10 of about 31 for "hipster norah jones. (0.24 seconds)

Your search - "feist has brown hair" - did not match any documents.

i could really listen to "luka" right now. i love that song.

I had never heard this song before, and I was prepared to dislike it, but I found it instantly likable. I don't even usually like her voice - it has this affected soulfulness and creaminess that feels like it doesn't serve a purpose except to signify sophistication. And she's a bit like musical Prozac at times.

But this song is just disarming and I can't summon up an ounce of hate for it.

I like her guitar playing in this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YZZ1Gd5qjc4&feature=related

I've watched that clip several times the last few weeks, not a big Feist fan or anything, it's just that good... Hurting OTM. This is so stupid. You really must try hard not to like this song (I haven't seen any commercial though).

Pretty good. Like an emo Mickey and Sylvia rolled into one.

OK, I've finally figured out that New Buffalo has nothing to do with Buffalo Daughter's New Rock.

Or do they? (Does she?)

Is it me or have there been about 3 or 4 US commercials this year featuring songs with vaguely Feist/Cat Power singers? It almost feels like a trend now.

I've seen that Carson performance before. It is totally rad. Not really feeling The Reminder yet, but loved Let It Die. Also, the 90s were awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncCMR8RP8Zw

I thought the song was harmless enough, and catchy as hell. When I saw her do it on SNL, I was pleasantly surprised. It was much livelier, much more exuberant than the single. It's a shame that the single doesn't contain the goofy energy of the live performance.

Yeah, this has got to me the most defensible indefensible thing in a long time.

Her variation on this song for Sesame Street is quite charming and my daughter loves it. Third most watched Sesame Street video too.

Her variation on this song for Sesame Street is quite charming and my daughter loves it. Third most watched Sesame Street video too.

Oops double post

She really, really loves it!

i used to play that for my daughter when she was young. once in a while, I'll hear the original in a grocery store or something, and I'll wish that it was the monster lyrics.