Feist - "I Feel It All". A song that springs a city into being, neighbourhood by neighbourhood; with each verse a borough, with each chorus a skyline, with each bridge a bridge. And when the xylophone rings, note by note, new parks burst from sidewalk cracks. She builds it and then they come: she sings a city and at once inhabits it. "I feel it all! I feel it all!" Fills the streets with lives, the skies with breath, sends water spraying through the fountains' rusted copper pipes. Towers soar, skies are scraped. The joy of a maybe, of all those million maybes, of a world too big for fate to contain it. For the wild card that's already "in sight"/"inside", the way even a string of heartbreaks makes a necklace, makes a life, makes a subway map.
I wasn't just ambivalent toward Feist's Let It Die -- I became antagonistic towards it. Boring music, brunch music, an album of lite & snoozy songs that, with the exception of (the remarkable) "Mushaboom", lacked even the whimsy of Norah Jones. So I ignored all the press about The Reminder, read not a single article, and was utterly blindsided when the new record turned out fantastic. Bird-like, sexy, personal, and with only about three dud tracks ("Limit To Your Love", "Intuition", "How My Heart Behaves"). Highly recommended.
[buy]
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Apteka - "The Sheet". If The Clientele were a punk band: people prone to fistfights with their brothers, with flicking light-switches til they break. If snowstorms shed sparks or cicadas caught fire. If you longed so much for something that you could never sleep again. Or if all your friends started playing electric guitars at once.
[MySpace]
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Elsewhere:
There's a surprisingly lovely & effective ongoing series at Music Is Art, where they invite various contributors to write about how particular songs have moved them at particular moments.
I make an appearance on this week's episode of Blog Fresh Radio, a podcast of songs introduced by musicbloggers. I talk briefly about Basia Bulat and her extraordinary song "I Was A Daughter".
Posted by Sean at May 31, 2007 12:21 PMI can't help but feel that "I Feel it All" is anything but one of the best songs of the year. I suppose I was turned off to much of the album due to its, to quote, brunch music sound...but after seeing Feist play the song while riding a city bus on Jimmy Kimmel Live I fell in love. She's such a talent and this track proves my sentiments true.
Posted by Chris at May 31, 2007 12:32 PMI agree with you about the song (of course!), but I don't feel anything that special in the Kimmel performance. Maybe I'm spoiled by Les Concerts a Emporter? She doesn't even do those Regine Chassagne-style "Ha!"s.
Posted by Sean at May 31, 2007 12:44 PMThe version of "I Feel it All" recorded for KCRW (I believe) is the best one I've heard and makes the song sound much fresher than the studio version
Posted by helen at June 1, 2007 2:13 PMaw, "how my heart behaves" is a gorgeous song. i think there's a couple of duds on the album, but nothing to break it. it's one of the best albums of the year so far, imo. only behind grinderman and frog eyes. feist loves making music and that joy comes through in her records (and shows). aw, "how my heart behaves" is a gorgeous song. i think there's a couple of duds on the album, but nothing to break it. it's one of the best albums of the year so far, imo. only behind grinderman and frog eyes. feist loves making music and that joy comes through in her records (and shows).
Posted by phil at June 1, 2007 3:27 PMLes chansons raté selon vous sont mes préférées :)
Posted by Rémi at June 2, 2007 1:50 AMthankyou so much for the mention, sean.. it is truly appreciated. hope you may like to be apart of the series sometime :)
Posted by musicisart at June 4, 2007 9:30 AMI quite enjoyed the first Feist album, probably because I was using it less as a musical adventure than as a spiritual balm. By this metric, the Feist track here is not as good--not as pretty, not as useful--though I'll grant that it does more. Sometimes prettiness is just enough, right?
Posted by tuwa at June 8, 2007 10:52 AMHi, please allow me to get defensive. Thank you.
Posted by tuwa at June 10, 2007 2:00 AMHello, self.
Well, hello. Lonely around these parts, isn't it?
Sometimes, I suppose. How are you?
Getting along okay. You?
Can't complain. I got the new Feist and Sean's right; it is much better than the previous one.
Well, that's good. I'll be sure to tell him next time I see him.
All right, take care.
You too.
Posted by tuwa at August 2, 2007 8:36 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
