The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

Feist – How Come You Never Go There

How about a hazy little AM radio burner? Maybe?


[Video][Website]
[5.50]

Alfred Soto: Accurately titled. 
[3]

Doug Robertson: This track doesn’t really go anywhere, content instead just to burble along Feist-ily without adding anything much to the template she’s already established on previous albums. It’s not bad — she still has the sort of voice that will always elevate even the most mediocre of music — but just unnecessary.
[5]

Jer Fairall: Probably the most famous, least interesting of the Broken Social Scenesters. This upsets my expectations of her not one bit: all tasteful slow tempos, barely enunciated vocals, the kind of lightly jazzy elements that lend themselves easily to “chill out” remixes, a slow burn of a guitar part for color, and a horn bit near the end that wants to work its way into some kind of lather. But our hostess remains shy about upsetting the dinner partying hipsters too much.
[5]

Jonathan Bogart: Dusty Springfield comparisons — especially the restless ’68-’71 period — are plausible, but I hear more Bobbie Gentry.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: There are a few glorious flashes on this track where Leslie Feist leaps about her notes like Rickie Lee Jones. If only I were convinced that they were deliberate, or that I could reproduce them in the same places during re-listens.
[7]

Brad Shoup: Feist goes full adult contemporary with this static floor-sweeper. Loaded with small surfaces that invite greater focus, the light husk placed on her vocal conspires wonderfully with the guitar licks. Snarling brass arrives at the end to bring things to the brink of rage. Album cover aside, this is much less paint-by-numbers than, say, Cat Power’s recent forays into minimalist soul.
[7]

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