Album: Let It Die
Artist: Feist
Born: Amherst, Nova Scotia
Released: May 2004
Genre: Indie Pop
With the likes of The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire all making waves in the early part of the decade, the turn of the century produced a golden harvest of Canadian indie rock groups. Leslie Feist was a key figure in this scene, touring with various Canadian musicians including Peaches and Chilly Gonzales and later joining Broken Social Scene as a singer in 2001. She was involved in the recording of Broken Social Scene's best LP, You Forgot It In People (2002), which is packed full of ideas and experimentation but lacks coherence (you can hear her on lead vocal duties on Almost Crimes). Around this time, Feist decided to re-record some demos (which she called the Red Demos) with Gonzales in Paris and the result of these sessions was Let It Die. This album is a long way from the raucous rock of Broken Social Scene, featuring a mix of French chansons, jazz, bossa nova, folk and some great covers. The result is quite a light and airy sound, but the songs carry an emotional weight and Feist's singing is wonderful. Mushaboom is one of six Feist-penned songs on the record, along with five covers, and it's a real highlight. I especially like the songwriting, reflecting the life of a struggling artist ("Second floor living without a yard / it may be years until the day / my dreams will match up with my pay").
Many of Feist's songs are highly quotable, such is the quality of her writing and the opening track Gatekeeper gets right to the heart of one of the album's key themes, the fragility of human relationships ("Only to find / that the love that they grew / in the summer froze"). The title track features the couplet ("The saddest part, of a broken heart / isn't the ending, so much as the start"), and the track's low-key instrumentation allows the listener to enjoy Feist channelling her inner chanteuse. She covers legendary French yé-yé singer Françoise Hardy on side 2, her version of L'Amour Ne Dure Pas Toujours (translated as "love doesn't last forever") no doubt chosen carefully to fit with the album's wistful mood. Let It Die also contains a cover of Bee Gees' song Inside & Out, which is a huge improvement on the original, while Secret Heart doesn't really add anything. The best it achieves is to highlight the deeply personal, affecting music of fellow Canadian, Ron Sexsmith. Inside & Out points forward to the disco sound of The Reminder, which is more polished than Let It Die and blessed by some great tracks (like My Moon, My Man) but not quite as captivating. Other highlights are Leisure Suite and her cover of the bittersweet Now At Last, but the album's real strength is how beautifully each track flows from one to the next, evoking a really special mood.
Many of Feist's songs are highly quotable, such is the quality of her writing and the opening track Gatekeeper gets right to the heart of one of the album's key themes, the fragility of human relationships ("Only to find / that the love that they grew / in the summer froze"). The title track features the couplet ("The saddest part, of a broken heart / isn't the ending, so much as the start"), and the track's low-key instrumentation allows the listener to enjoy Feist channelling her inner chanteuse. She covers legendary French yé-yé singer Françoise Hardy on side 2, her version of L'Amour Ne Dure Pas Toujours (translated as "love doesn't last forever") no doubt chosen carefully to fit with the album's wistful mood. Let It Die also contains a cover of Bee Gees' song Inside & Out, which is a huge improvement on the original, while Secret Heart doesn't really add anything. The best it achieves is to highlight the deeply personal, affecting music of fellow Canadian, Ron Sexsmith. Inside & Out points forward to the disco sound of The Reminder, which is more polished than Let It Die and blessed by some great tracks (like My Moon, My Man) but not quite as captivating. Other highlights are Leisure Suite and her cover of the bittersweet Now At Last, but the album's real strength is how beautifully each track flows from one to the next, evoking a really special mood.
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