ShareThisBy CHUCK CAMPBELL
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 14, 2007
"THE REMINDER," Feist (Cherry Tree/Interscope)
Greatness eludes Feist on "The Reminder." That might or might not bother her, and therein lies the problem.
Like many gifted performers, Leslie Feist creates her own world. Yet it's hard to get a read on her as she flaunts her range and exercises her impulses. Her mysterious and mercurial persona only makes her more of a stranger with every track.
The Canadian transplant to France was more accessible a couple of years ago with her solo debut "Let It Die," which showed the sometime-Broken Social Scene vocalist to be an eccentric lounge singer.
Working again with collaborator Chilly Gonzales, Feist occasionally revisits that swell vibe on "The Reminder," as on such new tracks as the luminescent "How My Heart Behaves" and the resonant "My Moon My Man," where she channels her most romantic coo into the chorus: "Take it slow, take it easy on me."
The piano plays a key role on "Brandy Alexander," an inviting, if not enchanting, excursion into snapped-rhythm cool, and Feist layers textured vocals into "The Limit to Your Love" to create a blended air of sweetness and standoffishness.
The singer branches out more on "The Reminder" than she did on "Let It Die," and her eclecticism need not be a liability: They don't come much more eclectic, or top-selling, than Gwen Stefani.
Unfortunately, "The Reminder's" diversity often sounds pretentious.
Her cutesy vocals may dovetail with the banjo, pulsing bass and clapping hands of "1234" for serviceable whim, but her jaunt through the raw, country-rock-accented "Past in Present" sounds disingenuous. Meanwhile, "I Feel It All" seems to want to be a breezy song with ornate breaks, though the arrangement is too modest for its complicated aspirations. Also, the undercooked "Intuition" and nondescript "The Park" are needless indulgences in acoustic-guitar blandness.
"Sea Lion Woman," a traditional chant once covered by Nina Simone, might be the best test of Feist's fan base: Those who relate to the hodgepodgery of quirky electronics, claps, rock breaks and backing choir probably won't have a problem with the remainder of "The Reminder."
Those who hesitate will have to cherry-pick through the tracks.
Rating (five possible): 3
"A TRIBUTE TO JONI MITHCELL," various acts (Nonesuch)
Tribute albums invariably disappoint, so it's no surprise the superstar lineup on "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell" isn't able to buck the status quo.
Regardless of their quality, tribute songs fall into two categories: the reinvention and the faithful rendition. The former tends to put off fans of the artist being honored, while the latter tends to make listeners wonder why they aren't just listening to the original works.
"A Tribute to Joni Mitchell" looks at Mitchell from both sides, though it's worth noting there's no cover of "Both Sides Now," which she penned and recorded and which also became a Top 10 hit for Judy Collins in the late 1960s.
Some other expected songs do surface, however, including "Free Man in Paris," "Blue," "River" and "Help Me." The track list plus the contributing artists -- James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Bjork, Prince, Annie Lennox, Sarah McLachlan and others -- could get the hearts pounding of many music lovers who might have forgotten how these things usually turn out.
Mitchell's timeless works are imbued with rare poetry and these are top-shelf performers paying homage, so nothing really awful emerges in the compilation. Still, "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell" gets off to an inauspicious start with Sufjan Stevens' self-consciously quirky take on "Free Man in Paris" -- easily the worst track in the bunch -- and it doesn't help that two of the next three tracks find Bjork in electronic-nymph mode (on "The Boho Dance") and jazz pianist Brad Mehldau punting Mitchell's lyrics altogether (on an instrumental version of "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow").
Mitchell is treated more reverentially as the release rolls on -- Prince's showy cover of "A Case of You" sounds both elegant and heartfelt, and Elvis Costello embodies affectionate sophistication on "Edith and the Kingpin." Also, Lennox and k.d. lang, who possess two of the purest and most gorgeous voices in contemporary music, shine on "Ladies of the Canyon" and "Help Me," respectively. And Taylor's closing cover of "River" is what anyone might expect it to be -- understated and moving.
Yet under the circumstances, the songs can't help but be out of context. This isn't "Court and Spark Part 2" or "More Hissing of Summer Lawns." It's a collection of disparate performers having little flings.
"A Tribute to Joni Mitchell" is amusing, but if you want to hear a good Joni Mitchell song, make sure she's the one singing.
Rating: 3-1/2
"YOUNG GALAXY," Young Galaxy (Arts & Crafts)
The Montreal indie universe keeps expanding, now with Stars spawning Young Galaxy.
At the center of the spacey new project is former Stars guitarist Stephen Ramsay, who formed the act with his girlfriend, Catherine McCandless. With help from a full slate of guest performers, Young Galaxy is in a similar orbit with many of Montreal's other adult-pop bands. The duo's self-titled debut is dreamy and accessible but, in what seems to be a prerequisite for groups from the city, stubbornly flawed. Like its predecessors -- including Stars -- Young Galaxy comes up short on sheen and limited by the act's narrow talents.
For some, that only enhances to the charm. For most, it makes the group's music feel as enduring as a Quebecoise summer.
"Young Galaxy" isn't adequately sharp to position the act as a genre-defining band. The philosophical lyrics aren't poignant enough to break it out (a la 1980s-era Tears for Fears), and the shimmering veneer isn't rich enough to make it the next Cocteau Twins.
Yet Ramsay and McCandless would likely be happy if they could just pay their bills with a "Young Galaxy" that leans too heavily on Ramsay's shaky vocals and arrangements that invite distraction.
Fortunately, prolonged exposure creates a mildly intoxicating air, the singing is oddly soothing, and the motto-packed lyrics are effective.
The music is alternately fizzy and fluffy -- "Lost in the Call" is an aural equivalent of a slow-motion sandstorm, "Lazy Religion" is a keyboard-based mellow anthem, and "Searchlight" is inflated with airy pep. Also, surreal hypnosis results from the spacious sparseness of "The Sun's Coming Up and My Plane's Going Down."
Still, Young Galaxy sometimes sounds like its making music just to amuse itself -- going on a clumsy tangent of stitching together subtleties and grandiosity on "Come and See" and pitting hollow vocal treatments in synth swells wrapped in a humming mask on "The Alchemy Between Us." Such miscues, combined with Ramsay's ho-hum voice, reveal Young Galaxy's growing pains.
Rating: 3-1/2
(Contact Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)
