Feist’s New Album Feels Perfectly On-Brand

On this year’s "Pleasure," it sounds as if Feist has finally dialed in the right blend of ragged chords and sparse arrangements to allow her extraordinary vocal abilities to soar.

IMAGE: Courtesy of Swell Publicity.
By Pete Cottell

Feist

[LO-FI POP ROYALTY] After the breakthrough of her 2007 album The Reminder, fueled at first by her association with Canadian baroque rock collective Broken Social Scene and then by the ubiquity of that album's lead single "1234," few would've slighted Leslie Feist for pivoting from melancholy, understated indie-pop to technicolor crowd pleasers a la Jewel in her "Intuition" era. Instead, she doubled down on the rocker aesthetic, releasing Metals in 2011 to favorable but underwhelming reviews.

On this year's Pleasure, it sounds as if Feist has finally dialed in the right blend of ragged chords and sparse arrangements to allow her extraordinary vocal abilities to soar. Though the record feels subdued on cursory listens, it turns out that blank space is the perfect canvas for Feist's subtly triumphant songcraft to properly shine. The trembling build of "The Wind" and the rolling bar-blues of "I'm Not Running Away" function as sterling testaments to her ability to weave disparate threads of roots rock into a narrative that feels perfectly on-brand at this point in her career.

SEE IT: Feist plays Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St. #110, 503-288-3895. 8 pm Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 7-8. 8 pm. $45. All ages.

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