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Tuesday, May 1, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

BIDS at SEA!

Feist crafts a
catchy 'Reminder'

4

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By ANNA ASH
AssociateArts Editor
Seven years ago, the electro-
clash musician Peaches had a
guest vocaiist known as Bitch
Lap Lip. While their music
cgether m y Ihave been sexy as
1: it rlay desn't compare to
litch's mr recent projects.
Eitch Lap Lap, better known
is Ficist, has come a long way
froms her
former
punk-rock, kk
Broken
Social Feist
Scene and The Reminder
Bitch days.
After the Cherrytree/Interscope
success of
her second solo album Let it Die
in 2004, Feist was able to par-
tially crawl out of the shells of
her former lives. This year's The
Reminder, though, will undoubt-
edly push the thirty-one-
year-old Canadian into some
well-deserved solo spotlight.
Where Let it Die proved that
Feist had some serious grooves
in her, The Reminder unabash-
edly exposes melodies that are
so catchy you almost hope they
make it to the mainstream. But
just because some of the album
could succeed on radio airwaves
doesn't mean that it can be
tossed off as a pop album. Simi-
lar to Feist's previous endeavors,
The Reminder retains the genre
diversity, but there is something
cohesive in this album that ties
all of the jazz, folk, electronic,
dance and rock together with a
thin, red thread of soulfulness.
"I'm sorry" are Feist's first
words in the mellow, sultry
lounge croon of the first track.
Apologetic lyrics unhurriedly
and seamlessly pushed along by
bare vocals introduce this album
with casualness. The smooth-
ness doesn't last long, though,
and it is immediately interrupt-
ed by the guitar-driven "I Feel It
All," which cordially introduces
Feist's pop-reign with harmony
in thirds and plenty of tambou-
rine.
The foot-tapping continues
from there with "My Moon My
Man." Although the song crescen-
dos with electronic, full-bodied
instrumental phrases, Feist'sfluid,
and sometimes gravelly whis-

pered, voice takes the forefront.
When she does take the tempo
down a notch, she does so with a
brilliant attention to detail. "The
Water, "one of the most poetically
conscious tunes on the album,
approaches its somberness with
soaring vocals and minimal
instrumentation. Interludes of
horns and
faint bells
adorn the Some new
lyrical art- Style, same
istry that old funk. It's
takes a stun- Feist, only
ning prece- better
dence: "I'm
pale as a pile
ofbones /you hope for yourbabies
and this is how they grow / with
batters knocked over / the teeth
bite the shoulder / watching the
gray sky that's acting like a good
guy."
The climax of the album comes
with the banjo. "1 2 3 4," with its
playful trumpet lines, soulful keys
and banjo pickings, just might be
one of the best pop songs released
this year. But what is great about
Feist's eye-catching entrance into
the pop-world is that a tuneful
song like this isn't a sell-out and
it isn't her means of conforming
- it's just really good music.
No, The Reminder doesn't have
anything nearly as funky as "One
Evening"offofLetitDie,butitdoes
have the electronically-charged,
hand-clapping "Sea Lion Woman"
chant. And yes, the album as a
whole has a more focused, pulled
together sound. Fortunately,
despite her conscious movement
into pop-oriented terrain, Feist
uses just enough elements of her
previious eccentricities to keep
die-hard fans securely fastened,
while also throwing in a few fac-
tors that will surely attrnct some
new listeners.