Feist - Multitudes

by Zena Grieg

published: 26 / 5 / 2023

Label: Select Label
Format: CD

intro

Evocative but reflective latest album from Canadian singer-songwriter Feist

‘Multitudes’, the latest album by Canadian singer-songwriter [Leslie] Feist, clearly evidences inspiration by Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush with layered lyrics, hypnotic synths and strings and multi-track vocals. With an eclectic career behind her, attaining global success with ‘1234’ (also the soundtrack to a 2007 iPod Nano ad), singing with the Muppets on 'Sesame Street', playing with the Toronto rock band Broken Social Scene and providing backing vocals for former flatmate Peaches, Feist is striking out on a new path with this sixth record. Accompanied by her band and longstanding collaborator Chilly Gonzales, the songs revolve around existential themes, death, birth, angst and the absurd circle of life. Songs to listen out for in this twelve-track collection include: the moody, atmospheric opener ‘In Lightning’ with its distorted harmonies; the quiet, emotive, guitar-lead ‘Love Who We Are Meant To’; the delicate, soaring ‘The Redwing’; the meditative, ritualistic ‘I Took All My Rings Off”; striking indie-rock anthem ‘Borrow Trouble’ with its incisive lyrics: “So good at picturing the life I was gonna be left out of/Rather than the one I’d made”; and the visceral closer ‘Song For Sad Friends’ with its defiance: “...won’t be undermined/By the overwhelming times/…it’s from here/We can really begin”. Rich in imagery, contemplative and expansive, 'Multitudes' is an album that calls for repeated listening.

Track Listing:-

1 Hiding Out
2 In Lightning
3 Love Who We Are Meant To
4 Forever Before
5 Red Wing
6 Rings Off
7 Borrow Trouble
8 Of Womankind
9 Become the Earth
10 Martyr Moves
11 Calling All the Gods
12 Song for a Sad Friend