#193: Let It Die
Ranking The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far (2025)
Feist, 2004
Feist is Canadian music royalty and it started with this album. She is a part-time member of Broken Social Scene as well, and sings on You Forgot It In People and other Broken Social Scene projects. But Let It Die is not a Broken Social Scene project, as she creates her own identity through these 11 songs.
Feist’s style is a little of everything: coffee house, French folk, retro dance, piano ballad. But she creates an emotional tie through these differing styles with her incredible voice, moving through each song with intention as though they were recorded in order.
“Gatekeeper” and “Mushaboom” open the album with intriguing statements. On “Gatekeeper” she’s only accompanied by a lightly-strummed acoustic guitar and the occasional keyboard note. “Mushaboom” is a little more uptempo, with drums and hand claps and tambourine and a few horns. She’s building on her own sound with this one, but the focus is still her voice, delicate but insistent, ready to rise at any moment. From there, “Let It Die” brings it down slightly, with slow percussion and a chime of the keyboard. Lyrically, we start to see a small thread of regret and recovery: “The saddest part of a broken heart / Isn’t the ending, so much as the start.”
Then we’re into the second section, with the incredible lounge-adjacent “One Evening.” Then there’s “Leisure Suite” and “L’amour ne dure pas toujours,” and you can see the thick cigarette smoke filling the small basement jazz club she’s envisioning.
The next section starts with “Lonely Lonely,” her second cover song though the lyrics are hers. This song could be a capella and nearly is; she runs though the verses slowly, letting the silence between each line fill the room before moving to the next. As the song goes on, her voice rises from a near whisper to full volume and becomes the emotional heart of the album, your heart breaking with her as she sings:
Paper, paper obsolete
How will you reach out to me
I thought you'd ask me not to leave
Lonely lonely, that is me
Lonely lonely, that is me
The song ends with an increasing tempo denouement, indicating that she’s moved on: “Lonely lonely that is you.”
The closing section is highlighted by her cover of the Bee Gees’ “Love You Inside Out,” reinterpreted as “Inside and Out.” It’s an excellent modern disco song, capturing the vibe of the dance craze while creating an emotional connection to the listener.
This album is exceptional and Feist is an exceptional artist. My favourite here is “Lonely Lonely,” as it’s a small suite of intense emotion packed within a 4 minute pop song. I also love her next album, The Reminder, which vaulted her into international stardom, especially with the commercial success (and Apple fame) of “1,2,3,4.” My favourite there is “My Moon My Man” and “I Feel It All,” specifically the Britt Daniel remix from the I Feel It All EP. Feist is an incredible artist and easily earns this spot on the list. Great album!