Idolator
Over at MTV.com, their weekly chart preview writer tries to stir things up by pitting a couple of this week's new releases against each other. Unlike last week's obvious Lavigne-Reznor matchup, next week's chart sports a random assortment of releases, with never-hatless hyphenate Ne-Yo as the obvious favorite.
So whom does the MTV pundit line up as Mr. "Irreplaceable"'s chief competition? The latest High School Musical spawn Corbin Bleu? The numbingly consistent CD-seller Tori Amos? (She could release an album of piano tunings with a picture of her in a bathrobe on the cover—a very artsy, self-aware bathrobe—and it'd debut at #2.) The mercifully Kroeger-less soundtrack to Spider-Man 3? Guess again:
...Feist's The Reminder, which The New York Times has declared as "the album that should transform her from the darling of the indie-rock circuit to a full-fledged star, and do it with no compromises." The whole thing's up on her MySpace page already—and it's been in stores overseas for a week—but that hasn't quelled the buzz. Her stylish new "1234"—directed by Patrick Daughters (Death Cab for Cutie, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)—has our interest piqued, and even Best Buy is hyping the album as, ahem, "A strong sophomore effort from an acclaimed Canadian indie-rocker." There we go.
There you go, indeed. While in our wildest fantasies the Broken Social Scene alumna turned indie-coffeehouse girl would indeed threaten a hitmaker like Mr. Yo, we're betting that any chart action Feist sees will be of the slow-and-steady variety. The Times's glowing profile does indeed help—the Paper of Record's readership nails Feist's hoped-for demographic square in the wallet—but it's now more than two weeks old. Asking middle-aged Arts section readers, even those hoping for indie cred, to remember an album's release date for half the length of a mortgage payment is more than a little wishful. And she's got competition for the mortgage-payer dollar this week from deathless Hair Club For Men rockers Rush, and Tony Bennett Idol substituter Michael Bublé.
As for our girl Leslie Feist, the new record's a very respectable bid for the brass ring, and we predict a respectable low-five-figure sum in week one—a top-half-of-the-top-100 debut, maybe even cracking the top 30. But if she's fated to cross over big-time á lá Norah Jones, it'll happen the way it happened for Norah five years ago: soooooo veeeeeeery slooooowly.
New Releases: Ne-Yo Aims To Put Feist On Ice, Stymie Spider-Man & More [MTV.com]
Comments
You're so very dead-on with Feist's Norah Jonesishness; as soon as this album makes it onto the playlist at Pottery Barn, Banana Republic, and Starbucks, as it inevitably will, that'll be all she wrote. Even better, she got New Yorkered, too.
It has been in the starbucks playlist for almost a month now... And I think we can all agree that Ne-Yo's only competition is, Tears for the valedictorian by the overwhelmingly popular Frog Eyes.
Goddamn, could I have used the word "indeed" any more in this thing? Apologies to Idolator: I promise to lay off it the rest of the day.
Given the fact that Best Buy is selling the Feist album (with digital bonus tracks) for $7.99, and it has good store placement, there's good reason to think that its first-week sales will be higher than one might suspect.
man, i hate to see you guys talking shit on rush. they're just regular dudes! well, they're canadian, but still. ain't no weird hair stuff going on.
Plus I hear they all talk just like ordinary guys.
I think outside of this music blog bubble, most don't know who Feist is. But I could be wrong, as I underestimated the Bright Eyes first week. However, I do think Corbin Bleu will be big competition. The tweens looove him.
I'm afraid you're right heidiho. A colleague of mine who should know better referred to Feist as "The Feist". Still, "Let It Die"'s audience grew over two years time. I'm hoping "The Reminder" catches on a little faster without becoming too oversaturated...it is a solid album.
Well, for what it's worth, "My Moon, My Man" is one of my stand out tracks of the year so far. A track, mind you, that I did find on this very blog.
And, if your calls of Neo-Norah are accurate, then I'll definitely have to check out the rest of the album.
Oh, Idolator, you're my fact checking cuz!!!
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