feist "the reminder"

joninc · Post by **joninc** » Thu May 24, 2007 4:49 pm

this album is great.

great songs, great vibe, great playing, great sonics.

how? i know it was recorded mostly live in a mansion outside of paris - i need to know more.

what is that vocal sound? sounds really trebly but it totally works and spring reverb on a lot of songs - some slap delays too... great handclaps, drum sounds . attitude! fun! unapologetic!

timbertrout · Post by **timbertrout** » Thu May 24, 2007 4:57 pm

I just listened to it this afternoon.

I noted the trebly sound as well. It was not obnoxious, just kind of like an old AM radio type of sound (with the "tone" knob cranked). I think it's pretty cool, actually.

Feist has a unique style and sound. Very pleasing. Best use of handclaps this side of Sloan.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:33 am

What I want to know is, who is her publicist? I think she wins the exposure award for 2007 so far. You can't hide from her on the magazine aisle. And I'm not entirely sure her album justifies the press. Just my opinion.

wrenhunter · Post by **wrenhunter** » Fri May 25, 2007 5:32 pm

She gets a lifetime pass for Mushaboom, imo.

Recycled_Brains · Post by **Recycled_Brains** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:00 am

i really dig her voice. one of the better singers to come around in some time IMO. her arrangements are great too. i don't like all of it ("1234" and a couple others don't do it for me), but much of it is cool. if someone forced me to listen to her sing for a long period of time, i wouldn't complain.

-ryan

tret-lo · Post by **tret-lo** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:07 am

Here is a thought-provoking review of the album:
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/3598

stoneman · Post by **stoneman** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:59 pm

the highs ARE obnoxious when i try to listen to her album in my car. it is the only disc i have that i put in and almost immediatley eject. her first album didn't do this to me at all. but at work i've been able to enjoy ithe reminder...though it just doesn't hit me like the first one. her music kind of grows on you slow so we'll see.

maybe i am too attached to that first album for that new-ness and discovery aspect.... same thing with macy gray's first album and my ho-hum reaction to the follow up.

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:28 am

timbertrout wrote: I noted the trebly (vocal) sound as well. It was not obnoxious, just kind of like an old AM radio type of sound (with the "tone" knob cranked). I think it's pretty cool, actually.

That's called "assloads of compression" Sounds like an La3a set to "stun" to my ears. Although it really works for me on some of the more uptempo stuff, I think the slower, more sparse arrangements were given a great disservice

Anyway, this is a very good record. I never gave it a chance, because I generally hate anything that's new and popular. Because I'm such a moron, I didn't listen to this record for more than a year after it came out... Actually, I just got into it this week. The first 3 songs are non-stop goodness. Then there's an inappropriately overcompressed and very unwisely sequenced sparse introspective ballad... then a bit of total awesome later on, once again. C'mon, that ballad is the last thing anyone would ever want to hear after "My Moon My Man".

The Reminder is apparently a really, really good album. I was very much surprised. The players are total Motherf*rs too. It's an amazing exercise in restraint, minimalism, and total lock.

I think this album makes her earlier stuff sound like a fairly unintersting lo-fi, "Indie" Norah Jones alternative. This album gives me a reason to listen to her. "Let It Die" isn't bad. (I'll try give Monarch another shot, but so far it's left thoroughly unimpressed.) But The Reminder really kills when it's at its best. It feels very sincere and genuine to me as well. I don't care who else happens to like it. It's good.

AstroDan · Post by **AstroDan** » Mon May 26, 2008 12:06 pm

I liked her before that iPod commercial. Then I could feel lots of people liking her. I'm checking the RIAA stats and as soon as she goes platinum she's dead to me.

Until then I really like this record.

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:00 pm

kayagum wrote:What I want to know is, who is her publicist? I think she wins the exposure award for 2007 so far. You can't hide from her on the magazine aisle. And I'm not entirely sure her album justifies the press. Just my opinion.

you can thank canada for a lot of that. they really stick it out to get canadian artists popular out there, and the bleed over to the states really gives the bigger canadian 'indie' acts an edge. of course 'indie' has to be in quotes when you've got a country backing you...

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:06 pm

thieves wrote:What I want to know is, who is her publicist? I think she wins the exposure award for 2007 so far. You can't hide from her on the magazine aisle. And I'm not entirely sure her album justifies the press. Just my opinion.

Oh... I missed this quote.

I would have to agree. She is over-exposed, which is precisely what made me assume this record would suck.

I was very surprised to find it didn't suck. Epically awesome? No. Good solid record worth listening to several times? Definitely.

The whole entire world feels overhyped to me these days. I don't know if that will ever change. I'm starting to get used to it. What else can you do?

rwc · Post by **rwc** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:26 pm

fossiltooth wrote:
thieves wrote:What I want to know is, who is her publicist? I think she wins the exposure award for 2007 so far. You can't hide from her on the magazine aisle. And I'm not entirely sure her album justifies the press. Just my opinion.
Oh... I missed this quote.

I would have to agree. She is over-exposed, which is precisely what made me assume this record would suck.

I was very surprised to find it didn't suck. Epically awesome? No. Good solid record worth listening to several times? Definitely.

The whole entire world feels overhyped to me these days. I don't know if that will ever change. I'm starting to get used to it. What else can you do?

I never heard of her, or saw her, and I'm a young diehard music fan who hasn't left the house without a form of portable music in five years, a record I intend to uphold for a long time.

Why haven't I heard of her?

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:39 pm

????? wrote:
fossiltooth wrote:
thieves wrote:What I want to know is, who is her publicist? I think she wins the exposure award for 2007 so far. You can't hide from her on the magazine aisle. And I'm not entirely sure her album justifies the press. Just my opinion.
Oh... I missed this quote.

I would have to agree. She is over-exposed, which is precisely what made me assume this record would suck.

I was very surprised to find it didn't suck. Epically awesome? No. Good solid record worth listening to several times? Definitely.

The whole entire world feels overhyped to me these days. I don't know if that will ever change. I'm starting to get used to it. What else can you do?
I never heard of her, or saw her, and I'm a young diehard music fan who hasn't left the house without a form of portable music in five years, a record I intend to uphold for a long time.

Why haven't I heard of her?

Damn. Thanks for the reality check!

You just made me feel totally lame for assuming that my tiny narrow cultural frame of reference has any bearing on what's considered important or relevant in the rest of the world. I hang my head in shame. Living in a neighborhood like mine, avoiding television, and working almost exclusively with oddball musicians can cause one to completely lose perspective from time to time.

It's the kind of environment that caused me to assume that Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were really famous, while I had absolutely now idea who Amy Winehouse was until like 3 weeks ago.... You know, that kind of thing.

Anyways, if you watch TV, you probably have heard her without knowing it. She was an an iPod commercial that was in pretty heavy rotation for a while. People like me see that as pretty "Commerical", while others see it (perhaps more accurately) as fairly "Indie". It all depends on your frame of reference, I guess.

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Tue May 27, 2008 4:43 pm

I tried to get into this one and I think I already started a post about this record somewhere, but I just can't get into it and this is the kind of music that I would normally be getting into. I feel like everything was played really quietly, which is great, but I also feel like the engineers or someone really couldn't capture that properly somehow and it starts to "sound" too much like a "recording" and you can hear all the gear. I really like a recording that I feel like I can stick my hand into like the recent "Blues and Roots" discussion. Is that a recording or are those guys IN MY LIVING ROOM?!

O_ellinas · Post by **O_ellinas** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:45 am

That's called "assloads of compression" Sounds like an La3a set to "stun" to my ears. Although it really works for me on some of the more uptempo stuff, I think the slower, more sparse arrangements were given a great disservice

I agree. A bit too much compression throughout, and a bit overengineered. Curiously the vocal sound is really nasty on a couple of songs only, looks like Feist herself and her Gonzalez buddy decided to have a go at producing. Unfortunately, they botched a couple of her most delicate and intimate songs (like the beautiful "The Park"), so it really sticks out as a shocker, and somehow all you remember from listening to the album is the bad sound of those first few tracks. Which is too bad because the rest of the album is typical Renaud L?tang work: brilliant and innovative.

But yeah really, shooting for phasey, distorted, roomy, compressed to death vocal sound on "The Park", like it's some shitface alt rock act, is a stupid thing to do. Just my opinion.

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