The Reminder

iTunes Review

Her second solo album, Let It Die, was the surprise hit of 2005, winning the Canadian Juno Award for Best Alternative Album and its creator Leslie Feist the Best New Artist Award. No longer flying under the radar, this Canadian songstress wrote the follow-up in the Canary Islands and Berlin before settling into a 200 year-old manor house on the outskirts of Paris for two weeks of recording. While The Reminder lacks the element of surprise of its predecessor, it delivers on her talents. It’s stylistically all over the map, with a rotating set of musicians providing different approaches. Traces of Philly Soul inform the Gonzalez (her producer and musical collaborator) co-write “Limit to Your Love,” while the ghost of Dusty Springfield is felt on the Sally Seltmann co-write “1 2 3 4.” “The Park” is a sparse, affecting ballad that uses her sweet range for maximum effect, as “Intuition” uses a similar minimalist palette that wraps up with spiritual incantations. Though Feist’s natural phrasings lean towards bluesy-torch material, she can turn it on for the dancefloor with the upbeat “I Feel It All” just as easily.