Audio By Carbonatix
The differences between good and bad singer-songwriters aren’t all that vast. All such tunesmiths tend to use spare instrumentation (so as not to distract fans from their allegedly brilliant rhymes) and warble about topics that seem personal, and are, or ones that pretend not to be personal but still are. The distinctions, then, are largely based on intangibles — the sense that some performers are brave and compassionate for sharing their innermost feelings while others are irritating and should shut the hell up. Which brings us to Leslie Feist. On the surface, her resolute sincerity and sensitivity, not to mention her insistence upon using only her last name, should place her firmly in Camp Annoying. But against all odds, The Reminder, her latest CD, is a small wonder, filled with lovely airs such as “The Park” that quietly, insistently draw in a listener and refuse to let go. Feist, who’s touring with Grizzly Bear, doesn’t do anything particularly new, but she makes people care about every word she sings. And that makes all the difference.
