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The Reminder | 
 enlarge | Artist: Feist
Label: EMI Music Canada
Category: Music
List Price: CDN$ 15.99
Buy New: CDN$ 11.98
You Save: CDN$ 4.01 (25%)
New (5) Used (2) from CDN$ 8.99
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 16
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 827590230026
EAN: 0827590230026
ASIN: B000OYCKXM
Release Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - Shipped within 24 hrs via Airmail from the USA - Average 5 to 10 workdays delivery time. Excellent customer service. NEUF - Envoy? par avion des USA sous 24 hrs - Livraison en moyenne de 5 a 10 jours ouvres. Service clientele en francais.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.ca
The Reminder, Feist's third release, comes from the same well of quiet, appealing songwriting, and delicate vocalizations that made 2004's Let It Die such a sweet treat. This one is a bit more hushed and ballad heavy, closer to Cat Power than Peaches (with whom Feist has also worked with in the past) but maintains an indie-minded blend of confessional pop, jazzy folk, and lo-fi torch songs. The comparatively upbeat single "My Moon My Man" splits her voice off into unexpected harmonies, just dissonant enough to stick in your head. It's hard to predict where her melodies are going to end up; "Brandy Alexander" starts with a simple snap-pulse, and gradually unfolds into a cathartic chorus of sweeping vocal overlays. Throughout, the record profits from a simple, unfussy aesthetic that keeps the production minimal and the emphasis squarely on Feist's cracking, wistful vibrato. Everything sounds deliberate, but not obsessed over, like an e-mailed wedding invitation. It's a low-pressure vibe, welcoming and content to linger. And linger you will. --Matthew Cooke
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 pretty good April 10, 2008
justine (canada)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
this cd's on a lot at work, and i have to say that it isn't that bad to listen to. if left to my own devices, i would probably only listen to one or two songs of my own volition, but the cd in itself has a nice easy flow to it. some songs can be rather melancholy if you're in the appropriate mood, but on the whole i'd say it's a light-hearted, easy-going album. at the very least worth a listening to, even in passing.
 Funky fresh March 19, 2008
Deanne (Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Feist's album is quite entertaining! My favorite tracks are: "I Feel It All", "So Sorry", "1, 2, 3, 4", "Sea Lion Woman", and "The Water". The packaging is also nicely put together.
feist - reminder - pitchfork January 17, 2008
T. Bigney (Nova Scotia, canada)
On "Mushaboom", the signature track from her 2004 breakthrough album Let It Die, Leslie Feist claimed, "It may be years until the day my dreams will match up with my pay." Now, after countless sold-out shows across the world, close to half of a million records sold, and placement in a commercial for British bed manufacturers Silentnight, it seems safe to say this NPR darling's "pay" should be satisfactory. But, while Feist may now be able to afford the idyllic hideaway she pined for in "Mushaboom", the Calgary native still wouldn't be able to enjoy its creature comforts thanks to her hectic, frequent-flyer schedule. Alas: Faraway, so close. Brimming with heartbreak, solitude, and foggy memories, Feist's "dreams" still sound distant on The Reminder, the singer's outstanding third album.
Mostly written on the road, the new LP gets its inspiration from the disconnections of non-stop, intercontinental hotel-jumping. Talking about her ephemeral lifestyle in an interview with Pitchfork last year, Feist said, "You just never set roots; you take pleasure in simple conversations, because you know you're not going to have much more than that." Though she's trekked on her own and with bands including By Divine Right and Broken Social Scene for more than a decade, the 31-year-old songwriter sounds desperate for something more than "simple conversation" here.
Unlike the half-covers/half-original split of Let It Die, every song but one was at least co-written by Feist on The Reminder. (And her buzzing take on the traditional playground sing-along "Sea Lion Woman" makes it distinctively Feist-ian anyway.) Whereas her last album's smoothed-out eclecticism could be both daunting and empty, The Reminder is equally diverse yet more full-blooded. From the indie pop of "I Feel It All" to the creeping electro-ballad "Honey Honey", the album ambles effortlessly; its musical palette is wide enough to stave off repetition yet innate enough to offer an intense cohesiveness. The record's keen combination of off-the-cuff production and no-fat songwriting is likely linked to its method: With several songs whittled down over years of performances, Feist-- aided by her usual one-named conspirators Gonzales and Mocky, along with Jamie Lidell and others-- recorded them in less than a week in a manor outside Paris. Fleeting touches from horns, glockenspiels, makeshift choirs, and other subtle accoutrements never announce themselves ostentatiously. Instead, the LP relies on a modest refinement that breaks with current singer-songwriter trends that promote infinite ambition in lieu of the basics-- melody, arrangement, feeling.
Hardly the first singer-songwriter to love, live, lose, and emote, Feist once again elevates herself above countless other diary-keeping tunesmiths with a voice that could make even Dick Cheney weep. Marked by specks of Dusty Springfield's soul, Bjoerk's confrontational adventurousness, and Joni Mitchell's warmth, the singular allure of Feist's vocals is difficult to deny or overstate. You might hear her over cappuccino-machine hisses in Starbucks, but her direct-line moans easily cut through the biscotti muzak. And on The Reminder, her whisper-to-wail control-- exemplified by stark heart-tuggers "The Water" and "Intuition"-- is even more striking than before.
"With sadness so real that it populates the city and leaves you homeless again," coos Feist on "The Park", a desolate, lovelorn lament. The song-- with its references to a relationship torn by distance, omnipotent nature (a carefree bird can be heard mocking Feist's sadness in the background), and a hazy "past" that offers partly-forgotten flickers and flashes-- is a fitting summary of The Reminder's wounded pleas. Leery of a sixth sense, the songstress concludes "Intuition" with a question, "Did I miss out on you?"-- its insolubility packing more ache than a hundred clear-cut break-up songs. Such eternally spotty "what if?" queries needn't always strike such dour chords. On the shaggy, Broken Social Scene-esque romp "Past to Present", the refrain ("There's so much past inside my present") has the singer embracing yesteryear with a proud vitality. But no matter where she sits on love's teeter-totter-- down on the after-the-fact apology of "I'm Sorry" or aloft in heady infatuation on "Brandy Alexander"-- her philosophy-of-self is sound.
After inconclusively rifling though her personal history for 12 songs, Feist finally seems to reach an Emersonian transcendence on finale "How My Heart Behaves": "I'm a stem now...fanning my yellow eye," she sings over wafting piano and harp. Though the song reads like a zen tutorial to her own unsettled emotions, it still finishes with a query: "What grew and inside who?" What she's referring to isn't exactly clear-- and that's the point. Pasts pass. People stay, go. But finding sanctuary within half-realized dreams and faces? Timeless.
-Ryan Dombal, April 30, 2007
The Great Leap Forward? September 13, 2007
William J. Walker (England)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this album on the strengh of what I heard in a record shop. I was blown away by the incredible voice and the immediately catchy sound. The voice was familiar but I couldn't figure out why. When I discovered the artist's identity it made more sense, as I already owned her first album, but had dimissed it as being merely OK(plus there were some worryingly Sade-like tendencies).
I have had some time now to digest the album and I would say that it is a strange mix of perfection and near-misses, but the near-misses are far better than 95% of what's out there. I've since decided that the real reason her voice seems so familiar is a vague resemblance to Ricky Lee Jones rather than my remembering of her prior work.
One of the things that some people liked about her previous album was the intimacy that derived from its restrained production. Well here they've pulled out all the stops and if anything there are a couple of tracks where you actually wish they'd held back(on the reverb' say)a little. But overall I would say that this album benefits hugely from a LESS minimalist approach. While Feist has progressed with this album I'm not convinced it is all in a positive direction.
There is an amazing variety of material on this album, but perhaps not enough killer tracks. It certainly deserves some success and I suspect it will get it.
 This is no "let it die" June 12, 2007
daniel madden (Montreal, Canada)
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
I bought this CD beacuse of all the beautiful reviews I've read both here and in newspapers and I must say after
listening to it, I find it not good at all. I must make a point to listen to it once again to be sure, but I'm quite certain that this CD is to put it mildly, irritating and not fun to listen to at all. It is nothing like 'Let it Die' and has no songs anywhere near as catchy,melodious and fun as her last CD (ie..Mushaboom).
I great Artist makes a great record, and then makes even greater records and after many years of great songs, slowly fades in writing and music ability, having earned the reputation of being a musical great.
In Feist's case and as with much of today's musical artists, one great record is not gonna' cut it !
The previous reviewer is also correct about the packaging.....not user friendly and scratches the CD.
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