The Reminder – Feist

Posted on by Roshan 2 Comments

I first heard about Feist (first name Leslie but she prefers to use just her surname for her musical career) in an article that appeared in some online magazine. Then Toronto Mike hosted an mp3 for sharing in his website a few months ago. The song was Mushaboom, which was a hit for Calgary raised Feist and got her noticed. That was from her 2004 sophomore Let It Die. Feist is also part of the indie rock supergroup Broken Social Scene, who have earned a lot of critical praise in the music world. And in early 2007, Feist put out her third solo album, The Reminder which has won her five awards at the 2008 Juno Awards, held recently in her home town of Calgary, including Songwriter, Artist, Pop Album, Album and Single of the Year.

Released in April of last year, The Reminder debuted in at #16 in the Us & #2 in Canada. Starting the album with the gentle So Sorry, an apology to a lover for her actions which hurt the lover. I Feel It All is more upbeat & lighter, which would have been a better opener to the album. My Moon, My Man is a little sexier, comparing her man to the moon. The song was also chosen to be on Verizon’s advert for the LG Chocolate phone.

Next up is an acoustic The Park a nostalgic look back at life passed by. The Water is a cryptic song about how some things are more than meets the eye and that it usually takes some other incident to make us understand what we have. Pale as a pile of bones, You long for your babies and this is how they grow, Wind-battered, knocked over, The teeth by the shoulder, Watching the gray sky, That’s acting like a good guy. Fiest next covers Nina Simone’s Sea Lion Woman, although she & Bass add some lyrics to it, a song that starts out sounding like an African folk song before a guitar solo rips into it.

Past In Present features a clapping accompaniment & distorted vocals during the verses. Next comes The Limit To Your Love is about that no matter how much another person tells you that they love you, its all up to you. You are the one who can do the most for you, even if you also love the other person. Next comes her big hit 1234 – the song was digitally released through iTunes Music Store. It became famous subsequent to its use in an iPod nano commercial. It also appeared in an Australian commercial for eBay. Brandy Alexander is comparing a lover to a brandy based cocktail.

Intuition, Honey, Honey & How My Heart Behaves round out the 13 track album, which firmly puts Feist in the spotlight. Already touted as one of the best indie rock albums of all time, The Reminder was also nominated for a Grammy, selling 1.2 million worldwide. Enjoy!

Hanging Out With Anil & Madhu

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Saturday morning came late for me, as I spent a good portion of the night watching Friends on dvd. I woke up late, had coffee and took a long shower and went out for sometime. I didn’t have any particular plan, I was just roaming in the cds & dvd stores on MG Road. I bought a movie & the new Joe Satriani cd (review to hit this blog soon) and then went in for some coffee. While I was sipping a chilled mocha, Anil called me and said that he & Madhu would be coming in to the area and that we should meet @ Marine Drive for a few drinks @ 2 pm. It was just about 1 pm when he called. I said ok and checked with Madhu as to when he would be there and then went to get some cash at the ATM.

2 pm rolled over and I headed out to Marine Drive and waited outside Coffee Beanz, our meeting point for the day. Anil arrived within the next 2 minutes and excitedly informed me that he had got the offer letter from the job that he had interview for recently. The job is in Delhi and although it was for a very important designation, it didn’t show in the salary package that they offered him. I said that we should hold our discussion for the while and find a seat. Since Coffee Beanz was crowded, I suggested we go find a sofa in Barista and off we went.

Madhu was duly called and informed about the change in venue and pretty soon we were there on a couch, sipping cold Raspberry Ice Teas and discussing Anil’s options. Living in New Delhi on the salary that they had offered wouldn’t be that easy, since it’s a new & bigger city and he is going to have expenses to meet. We’re not young anymore and with his 34th birth coming up, Anil shouldn’t be heading for uncertainty in the Indian capital. Madhu was very vocal about Anil speaking to his potential employers and negotiating a better pay.

We soon wanted to drink something stronger so we looked for some place that would serve us beer. I forgot to mention that it was a very humid & hot day. So after checking out a couple of places, including one that was a shithole, we headed for Velocity. There we ordered some Kingfisher beer, chilly pork, chilly fish, chilly gobi and french fries. We talked a lot about stuff, getting quite animated at times. By 5:15 pm we wound up our talks and Anil said that he would foot the bill, as this might be his last time with me & Madhu. So we said our goodbyes and I headed for home and crashed on my bed.