The Reminder | Feist | skeptical at first

The Reminder | Feist | A great album!

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The Reminder

	The Reminder Feist Cherry Tree, 2007 average customer review:based on 156 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Limited edition import digi-pack pressing of her sophomore album. Includes the single, 'My Man My Moon'. Universal. 2007.

skeptical at first

My brother was the one who introduced me to Feist. He followed Leslie Feist's work with Broken Social Scene, admiring her musical talent and willingness to experiment. He started putting songs from Let It Die onto mix CDs for me. I loved the music; it was unlike anything I had ever heard before yet strangely nostalgic. A few months after becoming acquainted with "Mushaboom" and "Secret Heart," I learned that she was going to release a new CD- Feist-The Reminder. I anticipated this CD so much that I bought the first copy I came across without bothering to look at the price. I waited a little while to listen to it; I'm always wary when experiencing new music- I like to sample it first. Eventually, I popped the CD into my player and started shuffling through the songs. By the end of the CD, I had only come across 3 songs I had the patience to listen to. I felt completely let down- how could she disappoint like that? I couldn't understand what she was singing or figure out what some of the instruments were that were making those sounds I heard! I was reluctant to give up too quickly, however, and gave her another chance. After a few long drives in my car, a few more songs started to grow on me, like "Brandy Alexander." It wasn't until after I saw her in concert that I fully appreciated the artistry in Feist-The Reminder. Seeing the songs performed live with accompanying images and anecdotes was like an epiphany; it finally all made sense. Now I savor every song every time I listen to the album- songs that I usually skipped over, such as "The Park" and "The Limit to your Love." Each element in the album is basic and completely purposeful. Not too little piano, not too much guitar, just the right level of distortion-to my ears, this album is now nearly perfect. If you, like me, don't get it at first, give it some time- chances are you'll figure it out and you'll like what you hear.

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A great album!

Leslie Feist is a young singer-songwriter from Nova Scotia, Canada. The Reminder is her third solo album, coming out in 2007. Even if you never heard her on the radio, you have probably heard her work - the song 1234 was used in an Apple iPod Nano commercial, and it brought her to the attention of a large audience. Heck, I was so taken with the song, after hearing the commercial, that I just had to find out who this Leslie Feist was.

Well, the other songs on the album live up to quality of 1234. I love 1234, but I also love Sealion and the soulful So Sorry. This is a great album, one that I am really glad to have gotten. If you like great music, then you will love The Reminder. I give it my highest recommendations!

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A Classic!

Brimming with heartbreak, solitude, and foggy memories, Feist's "dreams" still sound distant on The Reminder, the singer's outstanding third album.
Mostly written on the road, the new LP gets its inspiration from the disconnections of non-stop, intercontinental hotel-jumping. Talking about her ephemeral lifestyle in an interview with Pitchfork last year, Feist said, "You just never set roots; you take pleasure in simple conversations, because you know you're not going to have much more than that." Though she's trekked on her own and with bands including By Divine Right and Broken Social Scene for more than a decade, the 31-year-old songwriter sounds desperate for something more than "simple conversation" here.
Unlike the half-covers/half-original split of Let It Die, every song but one was at least co-written by Feist on The Reminder. (And her buzzing take on the traditional playground sing-along "Sea Lion Woman" makes it distinctively Feist-ian anyway.) Whereas her last album's smoothed-out eclecticism could be both daunting and empty, The Reminder is equally diverse yet more full-blooded. From the indie pop of "I Feel It All" to the creeping electro-ballad "Honey Honey", the album ambles effortlessly; its musical palette is wide enough to stave off repetition yet innate enough to offer an intense cohesiveness. The record's keen combination of off-the-cuff production and no-fat songwriting is likely linked to its method: With several songs whittled down over years of performances, Feist-- aided by her usual one-named conspirators Gonzales and Mocky, along with Jamie Lidell and others-- recorded them in less than a week in a manor outside Paris. Fleeting touches from horns, glockenspiels, makeshift choirs, and other subtle accoutrements never announce themselves ostentatiously. Instead, the LP relies on a modest refinement that breaks with current singer-songwriter trends that promote infinite ambition in lieu of the basics-- melody, arrangement, feeling.
Hardly the first singer-songwriter to love, live, lose, and emote, Feist once again elevates herself above countless other diary-keeping tunesmiths with a voice that could make even Dick Cheney weep. Marked by specks of Dusty Springfield's soul, Björk's confrontational adventurousness, and Joni Mitchell's warmth, the singular allure of Feist's vocals is difficult to deny or overstate. You might hear her over cappuccino-machine hisses in Starbucks, but her direct-line moans easily cut through the biscotti muzak. And on The Reminder, her whisper-to-wail control-- exemplified by stark heart-tuggers "The Water" and "Intuition"-- is even more striking than before.
"With sadness so real that it populates the city and leaves you homeless again," coos Feist on "The Park", a desolate, lovelorn lament. The song-- with its references to a relationship torn by distance, omnipotent nature (a carefree bird can be heard mocking Feist's sadness in the background), and a hazy "past" that offers partly-forgotten flickers and flashes-- is a fitting summary of The Reminder's wounded pleas. Leery of a sixth sense, the songstress concludes "Intuition" with a question, "Did I miss out on you?"-- its insolubility packing more ache than a hundred clear-cut break-up songs. Such eternally spotty "what if?" queries needn't always strike such dour chords. On the shaggy, Broken Social Scene-esque romp "Past to Present", the refrain ("There's so much past inside my present") has the singer embracing yesteryear with a proud vitality. But no matter where she sits on love's teeter-totter-- down on the after-the-fact apology of "I'm Sorry" or aloft in heady infatuation on "Brandy Alexander"-- her philosophy-of-self is sound.
After inconclusively rifling though her personal history for 12 songs, Feist finally seems to reach an Emersonian transcendence on finale "How My Heart Behaves": "I'm a stem now...fanning my yellow eye," she sings over wafting piano and harp. Though the song reads like a zen tutorial to her own unsettled emotions, it still finishes with a query: "What grew and inside who?" What she's referring to isn't exactly clear-- and that's the point. Pasts pass. People stay, go. But finding sanctuary within half-realized dreams and faces? Timeless.

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Amazing Album!

This is a wonderful album, each song is unique and touching. I have been listening to it non-stop. Everyone should listen to this really thoughtful and original work by Feist.

Good, a bit of an aquired taste