Countdown to 30: My Favorite Album From 2004

 2004

In 2004, Leslie Feist (or simply Feist as she is known to most) released her second solo album, Let it Die. Feist sold her first solo album Monarch at Broken Social Scene shows for a from 1999-2001, and she was finally ready for an album with a wider release. 

Let it Die is blend of indie rock, jazz, and bossa nova. It was identified as one of the best Canadian pop albums of 2004, and ended up winning two Juno awards in 2005 (Best Alternative Album and Best New Artist). In 2012, NOW Magazine ranked Let It Die as 4th on list of The 50 Best Toronto Albums Ever. The Canadian version of the album is a little different from the versions other countries got, so for the record, I will be talking about the American edition of Let it Die. 

The album contains many original Feist tracks  (or tracks cowritten by Feist), with covers taking up the latter half of the album. As far as original Feist pieces, "Mushaboom" is a strong, jazzy contribution. Mushaboom is the name of the villiage in Nova Scotia in which Feist was born and the song also plays on the syllables "sh-boom," a popular fifties pop chant. Title track "Let it Die" is a beautiful jazz tune about the inevitable ending of a relationship. As covers go, you can't beat Feist's "Inside and Out," her version of the Bee Gees tune "Love You Inside Out," a dreamy cover with electronic elements that bring the track into the 21st century. Well, you can barely beat it with "Secret Heart," a cover of a Ron Sexsmith track about expressing your hidden emotions. Thank you for asking- yes, it made it onto one of my fanmixes.

I listened to this album many times over, and am the proud owner of the Vinyl Me Please reissue on colored vinyl. However, another female solo artist just barely edged Feist out for my favorite album of 2004.

Eye to the Telescope is the debut album by Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. Obviously, it is my pick for favorite album of 2004. 

You probably know who KT Tunstall is, but even if you don't, you definitely know either "Suddenly I See" or "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree." When you listen to the album though, it seems as though any of the songs could have been either singles or tunes from a soundtrack. 

"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" features the Bo Diddley beat. It saw a great deal of success here in the U.S. after Katherine McPhee chose to sing in on the 5th season of American Idol. It went from 79 all the way up to #20 in the Billboard charts, becoming Tunstall's highest ranking single to date. 

The other popular single from the album here in the U.S. was "Suddenly I See," thanks to its use in The Devil Wears Prada. "Suddenly I See" is about the way the photo of Patti Smith on her album Horses made KT Tunstall realize that she wanted pursue a career in music. The lyrics lent themselves well the the film about making it in the fashion world. 

"Other Side of the World" (much like the runner-up album for 2003) is about a long-distance relationship. Allegedly, two of Tunstall's friends were attempting to date long distance, inspiring this tragic song about how "the fire fades away//and most of every day//is full of tired excuses."

The songs on the album dart back and forth between sounding acoustic and sounding more intense. Tunstall's rich alto voice works its way through her catchy melodies with ease.

I believe this was taken on my first day
of 8th grade, 2004.

I was among the many exposed to Tunstall through The Devil Wears Prada but evidently among the few in the U.S. who became obsessed with her further discography. A trip to the public library yielded both this album and Drastic Fantastic, meaning I got to hear both lyrically and musically complex albums. I love Tunstall's songwriting, her sense of humor, and I certainly would call Eye to the Telescope a near-perfect album. "Under the Weather" was an early favorite on mine. I love the way it musically emulates a rainy day. A couple of the songs made it onto a fanmix or two, but I'm going to stop telling you which ones.

Tunstall is one of my favorite artists to sing at karaoke, and since the tracks you can find in the songbooks are usually "Suddenly I See" or "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," I have gotten pretty intimately familiar with those tracks. My other signature is off of her second album, and I sang it for my senior year singing scholarship competition.

During college, I went to very few shows, with Tunstall's being one of them. I've since seen her twice more, once as an opener for The Barenaked Ladies and Better Than Ezra, and another time as the opener for Squeeze. I'll actually be seeing her again in August *fingers crossed* as she will be opening for Hall & Oates and Squeeze then!

Eye to the Telescope is fantastic start-to-finish, and it's a great place to start checking out Tunstall's discography.

Let's see it on that leaderboard!

Join me tomorrow for my favorite album from 2005.

Concert Review: Feist in Columbus, Ohio

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of seeing one of my favorite vocalists, Feist, live at the Wexner Center. The Wexner Center, as a venue, is not a rock setting, but it's definitely great for performances. The acoustics are possibly the best I've experienced at any venue.

The Low Anthem opened, playing a folky and Bob Dylan-esque set.

The Low Anthem

Having never heard The Low Anthem before, I was very impressed. They have a warm, rich sound and definitely know their way around musical instruments and concepts. I've never seen the saw played onstage before, and would love to again.

Feist and her band took the stage after a short wait and jumped right in with "A Commotion." I liked the live version of "A Commotion" much better than the album one. Such was not the case with "How Come You Never Go There," which was for some reason sped up immensely, so that it was almost unrecognizable. They carried some of the tribal sounds from Metals over to a version of "Mushaboom" with heavy drum beats.

 

Things began to sound more like the Feist of the earlier albums with "The Circle Married The Line," which I think is one of best songs from Metals, followed by "I'm Sorry." They played "Graveyard" in a style much more similar to something from Let It Die, flowing into a haunting "My Moon My Man," with a keyboard part far more unsettling than the album version. The whole song was played in a very rocky and somewhat staccato style unlike (but not worse than) the album version.

"I Feel It All" was made far more upbeat, causing most of the audience to stand and dance or clap. For some reason, it was performed twice, to no one's disappointment. Next up were three more songs from Metals; "Anti-Pioneer," "Bittersweet Memories," and "Undiscovered First." "Bittersweet Memories" turned out to be a fairly moving performance.

  

They played a version of "The Limit to Your Love" in which the beats were made more prominent and heavier. Afterwards, Feist drew attention to the backing vocalists, a trio called Mountain Man. Mountain Man performed a short song acapella, and then the band returned with "The Bad In Each Other," which, like "I Feel It All," they chose to play twice.

They closed the set with three more songs from Metals; the lovely and tragic "Comfort Me," "Caught a Long Wind," and a surprisingly beautiful "Get It Wrong, Get It Right."

 

For the encore, they opened back up with "Cicadas and Gulls." During the song, the bass/keyboard player danced topless backstage and was projected onto the background screen. Much of the audience and some of the band found it difficult to concentrate on the song with the interpretive dancing going on. Next, they played "Sea Lion Woman" from The Reminder, which was essentially everything I hoped for. The show concluded with a keys-riddled "Let It Die."

Seeing as I was not a huge fan of Metals, and the entire album was dispersed through the set, I was quite impressed with the show. Feist is a good performer who is lively onstage and able to engage the audience well. Her band and Mountain Man are also able to hold their own in terms of talent. I wouldn't recommend Feist if you're looking for a rock show, but she certainly gives a good performance.