the reminder
Feist’s The Reminder is a great album. But first…

Usually when a great song is used in a carpet bomb ad campaign which results in the nuclear fallout of mainstream radio saturation, a music snob, such as I, would write the song off as trash. This is not the case for Feist’s 1-2-3-4. Maybe this is because I’m softening with age. Or maybe it’s because I don’t own a television (so no carpet bombing) or ever have to listen to radio (so no fallout). Don’t get me wrong, this song (like any other) could hit a tipping point which could ruin it. For example, being used in the trailer of a feature film starring Amanda Bynes. On a side note, I once took a flight which played Bynes’ She’s The Man. Although I didn’t watch it, I did catch one scene which probably set a brand new low for slapstick comedy. Luckily, plane seats are equipped with barf bags which prevented me from having to vomit in my own mouth. Now back to the album at hand…

I wasn’t very big on Feist’s previous work but this one is definitely a winner. I don’t know too many artists who pull off the super depressing ultra minimal stuff (like The Park) and also feature a track like Sealion (maybe Sufjan, that’s the only person that comes to mind). Several of the tracks, especially The Limit To Your Love and Brandy Alexandar, remind me quite a bit of the arrangements and vocals of Joni Mitchell’s Blue. Though the meloy stuff on the album is great, the stuff I love are upbeat tracks like 1-2-3-4, Past In Present, and my personal fav I Feel It All.

If for some crazy reason you still haven’t heard this album, you can sample the whole thing here on Amazon and pick it up from the mp3 store for measly 8 bucks.