FEIST

Feist: Leslie Feist (vocals).

A longtime presence in the Canadian music scene, Leslie Feist contributed her breathy, expressive alto voice to releases by a diverse range of artists, including Peaches, Broken Social Scene, and the Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience. However, on Feist's solo debut, this talented singer/songwriter comes into her own with stories of love and light, and a melancholy kind of beauty not immediately apparent by the album's cryptic title, LET IT DIE.

Jazz-influenced and classically schooled, Feist possesses a voice with a distinctive intimacy often lacking in trained singers. This warmth complements the well-orchestrated compositions on LET IT DIE with an almost voyeuristic atmosphere, akin to hearing someone singing herself to sleep. On the bluesy spiritual "Lonely Lonely," rhythmic handclaps and sparsely picked guitar accompany Feist's haunting lilt, invoking the ghosts of Appalachia, while the Bee Gees' "Love You Inside Out" (here titled "Inside and Out") is set to an up-tempo disco beat. Feist's vocal agility enables her to sing straight French cabaret on "Tout Doucement" and smooth, soulful jazz on "Gatekeeper." The song that will make the tears fall, though, is the 1930s-esque, cinematic piano ballad "Now at Last," in which Feist dreamily sings "What makes winters lonely?/Now at last I know."

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