Feist

Pleasure POLYDOR. CD/DL/LP

After a six-year gap, Leslie Feist’s challenging and emotionally raw fifth LP.

As if trying to utterly obliterate the memory of her twirling and happy-clapping her way through the iPod-selling video/advertisement for 1234, Feist’s long-gestated latest is a vérité recording in which room ambience and amp buzz have been left in the mixes to underline the soul-baring sentiments of the songs. The result is akin to P.J. Harvey’s 4-Track Demos with, if anything, added intensity in terms of its confessional qualities. Titles such as I Wish I Didn’t Miss You, Lost Dreams and Get Not High, Get Not Low speak for themselves and the arrangements are variously pin-drop hushed or teethgrindingly distorted. Throughout, her voice is a thing of rare wonder, honed down the years to masterful delivery, acting as the centrepiece of a record that is demanding and compelling, though often beautiful.