Feist

Let It Die (Cherrytree/
Interscope)

Draw the curtains and close the blinds. Feist was meant for candlelight. The Toronto chanteuse’s solo debut, Let It Die, mines timeless, simmering night songs to be filed among the ranks of Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and PJ Harvey. Nodding to Seventies radio, Leslie Feist – a founding member of Canadian heavies Broken Social Scene, ex-room- and bandmate of Peaches, and contributing vox on the latest Kings of Convenience LP – is an indie rock darling in the making. Opening acoustic jam “Gatekeeper” spreads fall across the sidewalk as the sun peeks through the clouds. A broken heart, hopeful sadness, immediately followed by a giddy girl in love, downtrodden by nothing and singing, “Mushaboom.” Feist’s strength is in the rolling electricity of “One Evening” and Bee Gees cover “Inside and Out”: two tracks oozing sex and urging on darkness. Traditional clapper “When I Was a Young Girl” is trumped only by yet another album highlight, Ron Sexsmith’s “Secret Heart.” By the time the bubbly, French “Tout Doucement” rolls off her Feist’s bilingual tongue, the only thing left to do is wonder where this rail-thin beauty has been hiding. Feist is the new Barry White. (Emo’s, Saturday, May 7)

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This article appears in May 6 • 2005.

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