Okay, well I'm not one to turn down a recommendation, even if one of the two didn't pan out, for me at least. Having been advised by several people who should know, that Bon Iver's self-titled was well worth listening to, I did. I was, as you'll see from the review, less than impressed. Though I didn't hate the album --- nothing like it --- I was not blown away in the manner I had been expecting to be. Perhaps that was just me, building the album up so much through the opinions and enthusiasm of others, to be so much more than it turned out to be. I would not say it was a total disappointment, and I may listen to it again sometime, but to borrow a phrase used when I was growing up, which probably no-one but an Irish person of my age or older will understand, it didn't change my mind about margarine!
Nevertheless, a rec is a rec and as I say I'm not going to assume that if one doesn't impress me that the other(s) will fare similarly badly. I've been told that this is an album I should listen to, and although I acquired it a little while ago, things have been so busy that it's only now I realise it's been sitting on my hard drive unlistened to. So today I'm going to right (and write!) that wrong, and see if “Bon Iver” was a hiccup, and if I really have missed out on something good by not listening to this artiste before.
Metals --- Feist --- 2011 (Arts and Crafts Productions)
The fourth album from Canadian singer/songwriter Leslie Feist, who goes under her surname professionally, “Metals” slipped it at the number seven slot in the US charts, earned its creator a nomination for a Brit Award, was named best album of 2011 twice, and has already been certified platinum. Interestingly, it seems there is a link with the aforementioned Bon Iver, as they are opening for her on some of her concerts.
Opening track “The bad in each other” starts with clomping percussion then piano and a whole lot of weird instruments, most of which I don't recognise. Feist is apparently known for using “natural” or “organic” instruments, so could be anything I guess. There are things like viola, cello, various horns, something called a euphonium as well as synth, bass, guitar and so on used in the album, so hard to know exactly what's being played. This is a sort of mid-paced song, with accompanying vocals from Bry Webb which complement Feist's own, and some nice guitar work and piano with a great horn burst near the end. Kind of puts in me mind of some of the earlier work of Neil Hannon on the Divine Comedy.
“Graveyard” is carried on acoustic guitar and piano, with a forlorn vocal from Feist, some Waits-style backing organ, a much slower song with sort of muted percussion, an almost ethereal feel about it. There are only four tracks of the twelve she does not write herself, and on those four she collaborates. This is one of those four. Nice horn section at the end, very funereal, which of course fits in well with the theme of the song, but then the music comes up in a more optimistic vein, with a high, lilting, sort of chant from Feist and backing vocalists. There's a very folk guitar sound about “Caught a long wind”, with some ghostly piano and synth, which settles into a low-key piano line that accompanies her on another collaboration, then soft violin and some sort of bell sounds slip in, fading back out quickly as the piano takes up the melody again, getting a little stronger as the song develops.
A really effective string section then, with violins, viola and cellos, the percussion then kicking in a bit more, almost like slow handclaps, the song fading out on a lonely horn note, and we're into “How come you never go there”, with a bit of a jazz-like beat, guitar a bit more to the fore than it has been up to now. Even at that, it's a fairly low-key song and it soon gives way to the more electric-based “A commotion”, with a sense of building tension in the melody and also in Feist's vocal. Somewhat blindsided by the almost punk-style shouts of the title then by the male backing vocalists; just seems to come out of nowhere. It also doesn't help that it sounds like they're shouting “locomotion”, which conjures up images of a young dancing Kylie!
Can't really say I liked that. There's an electric piano foundation to “The circle married the line”, kind of Carly Simon-ish, but I'm sorry to report that at this point we're halfway in and I'm getting bored. It's not that the songs aren't good, or that Feist isn't a good singer, it's just this is not interesting me. Maybe it's just not the kind of music I prefer. Nothing wrong with the album I'm sure, but I'm starting to feel that it's not for me. Becoming a little bit of a struggle to get through it now, which is never a good thing. Of course, I have reviewed albums before that seemed to be going nowhere and suddenly came to life with a late spurt right at the end, so I'll continue listening. I have never yet cut a review short, and I'm semi-professional enough to ensure that never happens.
But... “Bittersweet melodies” is another nice, laidback, harmless ballad with some nice instrumentation, the trouble I think being that I can't find anything different, interesting or attention-grabbing in any of the tracks I've listened to so far. There's some lovely violin and cello here, yes, but it's not enough to mark out this song from the six that have preceded it, and I feel a cold certainty that the five still to come will be similarly unremarkable. And the next one is the longest! At five and a half minutes, I have to say I'm not looking forward in eager anticipation to “Anti-pioneer”, and indeed it's slow, lazy, low-key and, well, sorry, but it's boring. I would actually equate the lack of enjoyment I'm getting from this album to the experience I had listening to Dido's “No angel”; although they are different singing styles and genres, there's a fair bit of common ground between the two singers. And I'm as bored now as I was then.
A really nice sax break halfway in and some interesting guitar, but they're just flashes in what I'm seeing as a grey sea of tedium, and I don't like to admit this. I don't want to put any artiste down, and every time I press play on an album I haven't heard before I'm hoping to be, if not gushing praise, at least saying positive things about the album or artiste. I hate having to pan something, or admitting it's not what I had hoped it would be, but then, honesty is the bedrock upon which music journalism --- mine, at least --- is founded, and the cornerstone, to carry the analogy further than it has any right to be carried, upon which this journal is built. If I'm not honest, if you're not reading my true, unvarnished, sincere beliefs about what I listen to and review, then I may as well not be writing them.
So, hard as it is to say, to this point at any rate “Metals” is getting a big thumbs down from me. Maybe it's that there's too much downbeat, slow, almost dour music on it. I don't know. At least “Undiscovered first” attempts to break out of this constricting mould by hitting out with some heavy drumming and some guitar which, if not actually angry, is certainly a little miffed. Feist's voice even rises a bit so that it doesn't seem like she's just singing in her bedroom, a form that annoys and frustrates me. The horns are kind of the saviour the album has, if it's going to be saved: they come in at just the right time and in the right measure, and they lift the whole thing out of what I perceive as the general gloom surrounding the music. This track, in fact, breaks out in an almost Suzi Quatro-style rocker, though still retaining Feist's restraint enough that you're in no danger of tapping your foot or your fingers, or whatever part of you you normally move to music. Still, it's a start. Maybe.
Back we go to acoustic guitars and low-key singing for “Cicadas and gulls”, and the initial enthusiasm engendered in me by the previous track crashes to earth. It's a nice song, but maybe that's the problem. The album seems to consist of nice songs, songs that don't shout or get angry or protest, and whereas obviously not everyone has something to protest about, or wants to do so in their music, it's nice to hear a bit of energy, a bit of life in songs, and these are, pretty much almost totally, far too restrained and low-key for me. It slips into the very folk ballad “Comfort me”, as I fight to keep my eyes open... well, not literally. But I am fighting to try to keep some level of interest, and try to pick out any good points to report.
Okay, well that's at least a surprise. Halfway through this kicks into some sort of life, with thumping drums and harder guitar, good strong backing vocals and even Feist's own voice getting a little more animated, but still, at this point it's a little hard to care. I'm just waiting for the closer now, and as “Get it wrong, get it right” shows me the way out, I can really only feel a sense of relief that this album is now over. Perhaps that's harsh, as the closer does seem to be a pretty decent little song, but any possibility of enjoyment I had from this album has been leeched away by the droning, uninteresting and quite frankly annoying voice of Leslie Feist.
Again, I know I'm in the minority, given the general acclaim the album has got, but then, this is my opinion and my review, and if you just wanted to hear your own opinions regurgitated you would most likely not be reading this journal. If you're a regular reader, you know by now that I speak my mind; regardless of what ninety-nine people have said about an album being great, if I'm the hundreth to review it and I don't like it, I'll always say so. May make me seem the eternal pessimist, may make me look like a perfectionist, may upset or anger some people, but hey, that's me.
Honesty is my currency, and I ain't buying this. Well, I did, but you know what I mean...
TRACKLISTING
1. The bad in each other
2. Graveyard
3. Caught a long wind
4. How come you never go there
5. A commotion
6. The circle married the line
7. Bittersweet melodies
8. Anti-pioneer
9. Undiscovered first
10. Cicadas and gulls
11. Comfort me
12. Get it wrong, get it right