The Reminder
Feist
(Cherrytree/Interscope)
It must be something in the Molson's. Canada has produced more than its share of estimable women artists — Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, k.d. lang and Sarah McLachlan come immediately to mind — and now here's another entry: Feist (full name, Leslie Feist).
With her third album, The Reminder, the 31-year-old singer/songwriter has effectively graduated from the indie-rock ranks — she's kind of an adjunct member of Broken Social Scene — without damaging her artistic cred. It's an album that manages to be both familiar and idiosyncratic, built out of time-tested songcraft and mesmerizing vocals, but with just enough left turns and sonic derring-do to give it that all-important element of surprise.
The Reminder possesses remarkable range: quiet, girl-and-her-guitar ballads ("The Park"); pulsating rock numbers ("I Feel It All"); a torch tune that compares to the standard songs of yore ("The Limit to Your Love"); a weird, gospel-esque rager ("Sea Lion Woman)" and several iterations of irresistible pop: most notably the perky "1 2 3 4" and the warm-blanket "Brandy Alexander."
Feist not only has an immediately engaging, easy-on-the-ear voice, but she imbues her singing with imaginative phrasing and different gears to give the songs extra emotional heft. Sometimes it's a near-tears vulnerability, others it's a bell-like sweetness, and others it's a cry of defiance. She has a natural knack of drawing the listener in, and while I don't find her lyrics about love's gaffes and misfires all that compelling, they take on more subtleties of meaning in the hands of such a gifted vocalist.
While The Reminder is clearly designed for a mainstream breakthrough, the label did not foist a name producer on Feist. Instead, she and long-time collaborators Gonzales and Renaud Letang are free to detail the backing tracks with vibraphone, harp, luscious little horn sections, jaunty piano, quivering strings and other cool touches — not to mention all the natural-sounding drums they desire.
The triumvirate also has a special knack with backing vocals, be it gospel-hued male whispers akin to the Jordanaires on "So Sorry" or the feminine R&B lilt of "Brandy Alexander." These parts are invariably used as subtle enhancers, and they never crowd or deter from the main attraction: Feist front and center. 4 stars —Eric Snider
Sky Blue Sky
Wilco
(Nonesuch)
It takes less than a minute of listening to the new Wilco album, Sky Blue Sky, to pick up on the band's renewed rock classicism. Over friendly and mellow guitars, maestro Jeff Tweedy sings plaintively, "Maybe the sun will shine today/ The clouds will blow away/ Maybe I won't feel so afraid/ I will try to understand either way." That's quite a ways from the oft-quoted lines that opened 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: "I am an American aquarium drinker/ I assassin down the avenue." The songs here are basic: lush, aching, plainspoken laments about breakups and empty houses. This isn't a bad thing. Wilco is first and foremost a rock band and got into trouble on their last outing, 2004's A Ghost Is Born, when they started relying on pure noise to make their point. But unfortunately, Sky Blue Sky lacks any of the rowdy barroom sucker-punch of the band's classic-rock-channeling masterstroke Being There and as a result comes off a bit too well produced, a bit too mannered, a bit flat. While the restraint may be intentional (the songwriting is much more After the Gold Rush than Let it Bleed), that doesn't mean it always works. 3.5 stars —Cooper Levey-Baker
We're About the Business
Chuck Brown
(Raw Venture)
Chuck Brown's We're About the Business entered the Billboard album chart last week at No. 37! That deserves an exclamation mark — it's remarkable. Make that astonishing. Brown is the godfather of go-go music, an effervescent party-funk style specifically indigenous to Washington D.C.'s black community. Business is Brown's first studio album since the '80s; his only charting hit was "Bustin' Loose," which reached No. 37 in 1979. The new one is a bit slicker than Brown's early work with his band The Soul Searchers, which was marked by an off-the-cuff rowdiness. Business also mixes in some Latin and hip-hop. But enough of the songs are straight-up go-go — with its loose, rolling groove between 84 and 96 bpm, its call-and-response, its let's-party lyrics (in Brown's delightfully gruff vocals) — to make it a welcome gift. 3.5 stars —ES
Red Gone Wild
Redman
(Def Jam)
"50 cent" was just two quarters when Redman's last album, Malpractice, came out. No matter. The rap game hasn't changed all that much since 2001, and Red Gone Wild sounds anything but stale — especially compared to what's being issued by the current crop of hip-hop chart-toppers. Yeah, a decade-and-a-half into his career, Redman still comes across like a man with something to prove, placing witty brags about partying and getting his propers around slinky beats from the likes of Timbaland and old-school fave Pete Rock. Speaking of old school, Erik Sermon, Keith Murray and Biz Markie all take guest spots on the funky jam "Walk in a Gutta," but it's Redman who holds the spotlight with quirky lines like "I'm right here/ There's no need to download/ I attract hoes/ I ain't got a hound nose." 3 stars —WT
This article appears in May 16-22, 2007.