I heard this gem back when they first released it, and I happen to be revisiting it for the first time in some time. With that wondrous title track -- I've had the chorus in my head on and off so much of the past year that it's really just like coming home -- I feel like I could just melt and turn this review into a love poem. But I wouldn't want to subject you readers to that sort of thing. But this album -- every beautiful track is irresistible. I'd take this over Annie any old day. It's the "jhai" that gets me. The exquisitely worded one-sheet partially attributes this to Ms. Feist's singing style. "Jhai" is defined as "a detached manner of singing especially suited to very emotional material. The emotion is underplayed, never quite lets go and leaves room for the listener to crawl inside." I'm not in love with every style employed on Let It Die. But I'm still confronted with some of the comeliest disco tracks around for millions of miles. Feist is a real deal artist and she can swing a purty tune to boot. Sexy restraint is the name of the game. This record is lean and mean, on occasion, somewhat like PJ Harvey ("When I Was a Young Girl"). Yet, many lush, possibly sicky-sweet treasures await here. You can rest assured that this is worth your 10-15 bucks (or more!). I'm so psyched about this album, even the hot new scarlet album cover, that I'm gonna go ahead and say this one's a potential collection staple. It's actually too sophisticated, too classy of an album for me to profane -- oh, hell, I might as well do this:
"Leslie"
a kiss is,
what flavor?
wet walks in
winding rainslits
what kind?
Post-it note:
I'm a hokey jokey
so precoscious
giddy,
"secret heart"
makes me think I could
maybe like Stars
lovely a kiss
smirking lipsmoosh
levitating and
lurkhoney fail to
drip
all the way
down.
1. Gatekeeper
2. Mushaboom
3. Let It Die
4. One Evening
5. Leisure Suite
6. Lonely Lonely
7. When I Was a Young Girl
8. Secret Heart
9. Inside and Out
10. Tout Doucement
11. Now At Last
More about: Feist
