Feist

The voice of Leslie Feist is both tranquilizer and energizer. It’s like a warm change in the weather after a cold spell. It makes a person want to go outside and soak up the flowers. This album is so relaxed, the band members even recorded parts of it in their pajamas. This follow-up to 2004’s highly acclaimed Let It Die does not disappoint. There’s the free-floating quality that makes you feel good even when she’s singing of sadness. There’s the almost traditional-spiritual sound of “Sea Lion Woman” that will leave you swaying and clapping along. There are hints of jazz, Americana and residue of her former rockin’ days. What Feist repeats on the track “Brandy Alexander” could easily be said of this album as a whole—“it goes down easy.”