Feist - Pleasure


Feist
Pleasure
2017
Spotify

Feist is a musician who knows how to take her time. Most of the songs on Pleasure are about five minutes long, yet it never feels like a song is dragging each note slides right where it feels the most comfortable and sets down there, making it's impact. "I Wish I Didn't Miss You" is a great example of this, because it is so slow, so bare bones but just when you think you might need to move on Feist throws something in to bring you right back around. Nature is a big theme on this record with more than half the songs featuring some kind of nature related lines. This is not a new thing for Indie rock, in fact it was basically a genre during Indie's heyday, but though Feist is a great writer some of the lines feel a bit cliche. This is not an album that is going to hit you over the head, you really have to invest time and patience to really appreciate. That may be a good thing to some, but to others it means a time suck that they just are not willing to commit to. Yet around every corner is a new surprise, some new arrangement or change of direction that it seems only Feist can do. "Lost Dreams" feels like it may go one forever with this really stripped down acoustic opening (almost 3 minute opening) but then moves into this more aggressive posture once the electric guitar kicks in. It is a beautiful song, but so damn repetitive it feels like musical materbation at times, purely indulgent, but maybe that is the point of the album after all.

"Any Party" is the first time that things actually pick up and Feist's delivery becomes more punk rock and less Indie-folk. The song has a sweet sentiment, but also has this grittiness to it that is simply undeniable, it is Feist at her best. The problem with Feist vulnerability here is she never really connects it to the listener, instead you are asked to simply listen like some kind of therapist. When it works it works well, but when you feel like Feist is just talking at you it lessens the impact greatly. The claim she makes on this record and moving into a later stage of life is that pleasure is all we have in the end, and that is how we should live our lives. It's interesting that someone with her credentials and pedigree would arrive at this conclusion because it seems so very base. "Century" has this spoken word section provided by Jarvis Cocker and my god does it sound like a lot of bullshit hot air. There is a ton to like on this record and it manages to be pretty interesting throughout, but some of it is so self-involved that it is hard to buy in. If you are looking to take a deep dive this is the record for you, for everyone else, not so much.

7.0 out of 10

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