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Feist’s New Album ‘Multitudes’ Set For April Release
Feist will release Multitudes – the 11-time Juno Award winning artist’s sixth full-length album and first release since 2017’s critically acclaimed Pleasure – on April 14 via Interscope Records.
Multitudes took shape soon after the birth of Feist’s daughter and the sudden death of her father. Amid meditations on mortality, connection and the frenetic state of the human condition, the record ultimately radiates an ineffable sense of hope.
Feist says: “The last few years were such a period of confrontation for me, and it feels like it was at least to some degree for everyone. We confronted ourselves as much as our relationships confronted us. It felt like our relational ecosystems were clearer than ever and so whatever was normally obscured- like a certain way of avoiding conflict or a certain way of talking around the subject- were all of a sudden thrust into the light. And in all that reassessment, the chance to find footing on healthier, more honest ground became possible, and the effort to maintain avoidance actually felt like it took more effort than just handing ourselves over to the truth.”
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Feist will debut several of her new songs in a live performance tonight. She guests on Apple Music 1’s ‘The Zane Lowe Show’ this morning and appears on the cover of ‘New Music Daily.’
The album’s first three singles, released simultaneously today, hint at the album’s breadth. “Hiding Out In The Open” has the straightforward, open-hearted cadence of a campfire singalong. Feist’s hypnotically layered vocals sing in the round, reminding us “Love is not a thing you try to do/It wants to be the thing compelling you/To be you.”
By contrast, “In Lightning” thunders with clattering percussion, explosive guitar and brightly fluttering strings (courtesy of string arranger Miguel Atwood-Ferguson), as Feist challenges listeners to shut out the modern world’s incessant buzz and dare to look inside themselves.
With its cascading pattern of solo nylon string guitar against lush orchestral swells, “Love Who We Are Meant To” is far more fragile in delivery but no less powerful in impact as Feist reflects, “We will struggle with the truth/That sometimes we don’t get to/Love who we are meant to.”
Multitudes’ 12 songs were largely written during an intensely communal 2021-2022 tour of the same name, hailed as a “work of genius” by the Toronto Star. After the tour, which she co-designed with Rob Sinclair, Feist headed to Northern California’s Redwood Forest where she produced the album alongside Robbie Lackritz (Peach Pit, The Weather Station, Bahamas, Jack Johnson, Robbie Robertson) and Mocky (Jamie Lidell, Vulfpeck, Kelela), who had partnered with her on 2011’s Metals. Lackritz and engineer Michael Harris (Haim, Lana Del Rey, Vampire Weekend) built a studio and recording commenced with multi-instrumentalists Gabe Noel (Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles, Kamasi Washington), Shahzad Ismaily (Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Tom Waits), and Feist’s regular cast, who had toured Multitudes with her – Todd Dahlhoff (woodwinds, synths, bass) and Amir Yaghmai (strings, guitars).
A supreme setting for her enchanting voice and all its manifestations, the album unfolds with a near-symphonic grandeur despite its moments of absolute starkness. Multitudes affirms Feist’s ability to construct elaborate sonic worlds by following her singular songwriting to its most poetic yet unbridled expression.
Multitudes tracklisting:
“In Lightning”
“Forever Before”
“Love Who We Are Meant To”
“Hiding Out In The Open”
“The Redwing”
“I Took All Of My Rings Off”
“Of Womankind”
“Become The Earth”
“Borrow Trouble”
“Martyr Moves”
“Calling All The Gods”
“Song For Sad Friends”
