Wu Hearts Feist; Feist Hearts Bee Gees

Feist
Let It Die (Arts and Crafts)

You know Leslie Feist don't you? Doesn't ring a bell? How about Broken Social Scene? Yes? She's wailing away on the choruses of "Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix)". How about Kings of Convenience? You down with them? The transcendent vocals on "Build-Up" on Riot on an Empty Street belong to Ms. Feist. Ever heard of Peaches? She supported Peaches as Bitch Lap-Lap, the rapping sock puppeteer. How about the back corner of your heart that makes everything look like a Cezanne landscape and warms you more than the finest cup of oolong tea? No? Not so in touch with that one? Well, if you give her a chance, she'll make it there too.

I make it sound so obvious, but if you asked me two months ago if I knew who Feist was, I might have given you a blank stare, or maybe a fake nod of assurance without being fully aware that I was indeed familiar with the above mentioned references. "Yeah, yeah, Feist, he's got a killer voice," I would have mumbled. Funny thing is I would have been half right. Feist's sensual yet earthbound voice is centerpiece of an album featuring ups and downs and some extreme right-ons.

Let It Die is a dichotomy, even without considering the hits and misses. It's an album split right down the middle with Feist's voice and Chilly Gonzales' (Peaches collaborator) arrangment as a delicate adhensive. Essentially, the album is half Feist songs, half covers.

First, the original material is fantastic. Feist has a knack for the melodic. "Gatekeeper" is the understated bossa-nova opener and suited beautifully for Feist's honest and hushed articulations. "Leisure Suite" is a finger-snapping, lounge number in which Feist lives up to her name sake, encouraging to "undo her back zip". It's sexy and sleek, and cooler than Belvedere on a block of ice. One of two stellar track in a row, "Mushaboom" is an insanely catchy, percussive folk pop tune. It snaps along with impeccable precision while exuding a carefree, quirky quality. The other, the title track, "Let It Die" is a heart-wrenching ballad, lamenting love lost. "The saddest part of a broken heart isn't the ending so much as the start," cries our heroine, amidst a static pulse and barest of arrangement. It's a soul song for the ages, one that I wouldn't mind putting on a mixtape to an ex-girlfriend.

It's when Feist starts to tinker with other people's music that things get a little more dicey. Many of the songs come off a little too whitebread, funky smooth jazz. I'm not trying to pass the haterade onto Al Jarreau or Ottmar Liebert but to be as tactful as possible, I try to stay the fuck away from that shit. Feist and Gonzales walk a very fine line. The second half is not without it's bright spots however. Ron Sexsmith's "Secret Heart" is played with bounce and boundless charisma and "Now at Last" is a tender jazz standard and suited best for a brisk winter walk through Central Park. But it's in a Bee Gee's classic that Feist breaks out the sass, and those old aerobic outfits from her Peaches days. "Inside Out" is done without a touch of irony and it strives in its over-the-top harmonies and disco viscosity (or discosity, if you will). I'm not talking about kids with haircuts doing Rapture ripoffs, I'm talking about unadulterated, grandiose, garish mirrorball disco.


Honestly, how do you compete with this?

It's funny how you give something a little time and attention, and you can claim you "know it". Though Leslie Feist may be one of many burgeoning female vocalist (there always seems to be a whole crop of them), there is a connection, that she may not acknowledge, between me and her. And with more press, accolades (2 Juno Awards! The Canadian Grammy! Isn't that like the Mexican Golden Globe? I kid, I kid...) and celebrity recognition (Conor Oberst has covered "Mushaboom" live), more and more people will begin to know Feist. Stars frontman Torquil Campbell was right when he commented on his opening act at Bimbo's a few weeks ago: "I hope you caught Feist because in three months, she'll be playing the Fillmore, and you're gonna have to pay 30 bucks to see her suckas!" I'm okay though, perhaps even on the guestlist, I know her.




Let It Die is finally being released in the US on 4/26/05, after being released in Canada and Europe last summer. For sound clips and videos check out one of her many websites.

Feist: http://www.listentofeist.com
http://www.arts-crafts.ca/feist
http://feistmusic.artistes.universalmusic.fr