Feist and 'I'm sorry, what?'
First of all, I hope everyone’s holidays are going well and you’re all getting to see your friends and family. To those of you without, please come by the house this week for a game of Bocce Ball on the PS3.
Today, while taking care of a serious mold problem in the house, I decided to give the new Feist record a thorough listening. I had already heard the record when it first came out but kind of wrote it off. Now maybe it’s the mold or possibly the paint fumes talking, but ‘Metals’ is really fucking great. I originally thought it to be too similar to ‘The Reminder’ in production, but I couldn’t have been more off. I’m probably a bit biased due to my unabashed love for Constantines, but more than anything I hear Bry Webb’s influence in the darkness of these songs. Track nine could be a Constantines song if Bry was singing it and is just as heavy. Considering the position Feist was in after ‘The Reminder’ she could have put out a safe record with a few singles and made a killing riding the mainstream success of ‘1,2,3,4’, but she went the other way and made (IMO) a piece of art that will most likely find its true appreciation years later (see PINKERTON). Long story short, it’s a great record but there’s a bit of a problem to talk about.
There’s a famous saying, ‘the critics are never right about anything’ and in this case I’d have to agree. Most reviews of the record were lukewarm and on end of the year lists it placed poorly (with a few exceptions) and in some cases didn’t place at all. I haven’t exactly made my disdain for Pitchfork overly hidden in the past, and today will be no different. Feist’s ‘Metals’ not only didn’t place on the top 50 records, but didn’t even sneak into their 20 Honourable Mentions. This is a problem. Drake on the other hand, made it onto just about every list known to man, and was almost always in the top ten.
Now, Pitchfork recently gave Childish Gambino a 1.6 for being a comedian trying to rap, I’m not a fan of the Kanye loving internet-man but a 1.6 seems a bit insane. Apparently actors who portray high-school students in wheelchairs are permitted to rap, internet comedians however, are not. Tyler The Creator’s album was completely left off Pitchfork’s year end lists, which also seems insane in regards to Pitchfork’s obsession with him. My point is this, I’m not telling you what to like or not to like, it’s just hard to justify the borderline musical genius of someone like Feist or St. Vincent to be ‘worth less’ than that of Drake, when it should be the people who produce Drake and auto-tune his vocals that get the acclaim he receives. The process of reviewing ‘Take Care’ to that of say, ‘Strange Mercy’ must be different, they can’t possibly review them on the same criteria. And if that’s the case, there’s nothing out there like ‘Strange Mercy’, and perhaps there’s nothing out there like ‘Take Care’, but how does one decide which is better? I have no problem with Drake’s critical acclaim, but I certainly take issue with Feist’s lack of it.
As so many of our local papers point out, it’s truly a great thing that Drake has finally made the world notice Toronto’s hip-hop/r&b scene, there’s no negativity to say about that, but when I’m to believe that fellow Torontonian Feist’s own brilliant piece of art isn’t even worth being talked about, that to me is where things are not right. I think it’s great that Pitchfork reviews a wide variety of artists, but why stop there? Ultimately, if Pitchfork will review Drake and judge him as being one of the best in his field, than perhaps they should open up their list to Nickleback, Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift, Adele, Katy Perry, and start judging them all on the merits of their work in their respective fields.
Maybe the ‘Gucci Gucci’ album will make top record next year.
ps, I’m not a curmudgeonly old bastard.
- Peter
