Feel Good Lost (The Reminder - Feist)

Member Name: Seres

Product:	The Reminder - Feist
Date:	29/02/08 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Feist's unique voice, the kookiness of it all, y'all

Disadvantages: Many duff tracks on here, and the tracklisting is extremely suspect

Canadian Leslie Feist first came to attention when she became a member of Broken Social Scene, something which is akin to National Service over there no Canadian artist is truly Canadian until they've had a stint in that supergroup. Broken Social Scene were keen on guitars, and Feist was one of the main guitarists, shunning the spotlight in favour of standing at one side and rocking out. After, she moved to Paris, and recorded her second solo album, 'Let It Die', which sounded vastly different to the guitar rock she was linked to. Here she sang slow stylish numbers, pop, bossa nova - she even released a cover of a Bee Gees song. But one other thing worth noticing: she did it all in style, proving herself to be somewhat tricky to put a finger on.

As an artist with no fingers on her, her third album was rightly anticipated thoroughly by the indie press what would she do? Well, the answer seems, she would refine the sound she created on Let It Die and polish it up a whole bunch, and then completely mess up the ordering of the tracks. As a result, The Reminder' is highly involving and entertaining but then incredibly dull and broken. It's a real mix of the good, the bad and the kinda ploddy on this album, with fun, rocky moments such as "I Feel It All" followed by brilliant pop gems like "My Moon My Man", which lead into dull-as-listening-into-a-wet-tap "The Park". It's a real shame, because when Feist is firing on all cylinders, she's almost untouchable as an artist.

The album starts off with a bluff in the form of "So Sorry", a bluesy country folk riff thingy, which is slow and steady, with bongos pacing out a slow beat whilst Feist sings an apology to a former lover. It's by far one of the better ballads on the album, as "The Park" and "The Water" which bafflingly follow each other are incredibly sparse songs, with Feist sounding agonized in a sonic landscape of nothing. All outdoor sound is wiped out, and in their place are slow sound effects like water running or birds chirping. The songs suffer very much from this, as Feist's voice can grate when there's nothing for her to harmonise with, and "The Park" is, in honesty, terrible. It's when she has her band backing her up that she really flows, though. So far you might think I don't like Feist, but nothing could be further I love the girl. On "1234" her voice is perfectly cast against a banjo, in a song which grows until it becomes a worthy folk-beast, bashing away the competition with vibrant ease. Her take on Nina Simone's "Sealion" sounds fresh and exciting, reinventing the song with new energy.

Her slow songs benefit from having music soundtracking her, such as the downbeat but bass-tastic "Honey Honey", which recurs as the bonus track, a live version recorded in Tornoto, where her full vocal power blazes through. Feist has a very distinctive voice you see, a little like a less throaty Martha Wainwright, which adapts easily into shouty singalongs such as "Past In Present" or slow honey soul pieces like "Brandy Alexander". Her voice is one of her greatest assets, never upstaged by the music around her. On "My Moon My Man", the obvious single, the pop keyboards are toned down by her voice, where she instills the lyrics with a weariness that sounds fresh on a pop song. It's a strange contrast, but then again the album is full of them.

"Intuition" and "The Limit To Your Love" are two more clunkers, but "I Feel It All" is a genuine treat, a quick guitar riff set to words, and Feist's voice goes through the octaves like nobody's business. When she cries out at the end of "The Water", she redeems the song, because her voice seems genuinely pained. And in the end, she pulls the album off, but only just. The main fault lies with the way the album is set up. If the songs had been arranged better, the album would be much more effective, but as it is the whole thing seems jarring. Ballads play one after the other, and songs clash against each other - several songs make no impression, whilst three of four stand out and dwarf the rest of the album. Never good. But it's a genuine shame that The Reminder is as much dud as it is hit, because Feist is sincerely talented (and a bit maverick) but the record leaves you wanting more from her; lucky album number four, perhaps?

Summary: A female singer with a good grasp on vocal performance