Rare EPs, part 5

Keeping it simple. This is Feist's Red Sessions.

1. Intuition
2. Leisure Suit
3. Mushaboom
4. The Eastern Shore

After her 1999 debut album, Monarch, Canadian indie singer/songwriter Feist recorded the four-track The Red Demos (2003), which in my opinion are four of the very best songs of her whole career. Each of these four songs changed shape numerous times and evolved gradually through the years, finally becoming hit songs on her future LPs. "Leisure Suit" and "Mushaboom" became some of the best songs on her sophomore LP Let It Die (2004), while "The Eastern Shore" changed name to "The Water" and appeared alongside "Intuition" on her third album The Reminder (2007).

The Red Demos is definitely worth checking out for any Feist fan, even if just to see how these popular songs started out, or to hear some of her newer songs in what basically sounds like a Monach-style arrangement. Personally, I much prefer this early version of "Intuition" to the version she realesed on The Reminder four years later – the latter honestly just sounds like it has been worked on for too long, losing the straightforward beauty and simplicity of the tune. In fact, the original "Intuition" is possibly my favorite Feist track of all time – check it out for yourself and see what you think!

Taylor Swift

That’s right. Her.

The name probably calls to mind images of Kanye West or Beyonce, and rightly so. We all know how Kanye West dicked over our young starlet at the 2009 VMAs. Why did Kanye do this, exactly?

Well, Taylor had just won the award for best female video of the year for her song “You Belong With Me”, a popular single from her 2008 album titled “Fearless”.

The video is actually quite cute and funny.



Taylor plays a high school loner girl (autobiographical, actually!) pursuing a close friend who is enamored by a more popular, but distant cheerleader. The lyrics are highly clichéd, but extremely approachable and memorable. The true power of Taylor Swift is both in the simplicity and cadence of the lyrics she chooses, and her twangy, youthful voice influenced by artists like Dolly Parton and Shania Twain.

Her lyrics are often very simply composed. Simple rhyme schemes (aba, cdcd, etc), with very obvious metaphors. Taylor sings “she wears short skirts. I wear t-shirts.
She's cheer captain, and I'm on the bleachers” in the song “You Belong With me” calling to mind experiences almost all listeners have had or have. A simple dichotomy is created between a popular, materialistic, fashionable and a more authentic, approachable individual. One can see the lyrics as an expression of possible internal conflict in maintaining a down-to-earth appeal while being so overwhelmingly successful. Her grace and social tact, however, make it seem quite easy.

She began her career by rejecting RCA Records when they offered her a development deal. Part of the appeal in this young lady is in her authenticity and self-made attitude. The lyrics are extremely specific, personal, and through this openness and transparency the audience and listener is drawn in and is able to empathize and appreciate the lovely voice.

I hope the future of Taylor Swift is as bright as her beginnings. Her style reminds me of other female singers I happen to really enjoy. The country and folk influence definitely harkens thought of an acoustic Tegan & Sara or Jenny Lewis with a vocal talent able to garner Grammys and mass appeal.

Check out "Forever and Always" if you want to hear what I mean by resemblances to other, more independent and less popular female artists.

Billy Bragg and Wilco

I remember my high school English teacher, Ms. Guha (Goo-ha), asking our class if any of us had heard of Billy Bragg, a folk singer from before our time. I was the only person in class who had, and I asked if she had heard of his work with the band Wilco. She hadn't, but you will.

Billy Bragg and Wilco worked together in 1998 and released Mermaid Avenue, which is a collection of lyrics from American folk singer Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. The album displays the creativity from three different artist identities: Woody Guthrie, Billy Bragg, and Jeff Tweedy/Wilco. Although I wish the album was longer to give more to the listener in terms of hearing each entity develop while developing as a whole, but what I heard was still good.

Enjoy the great elements from early, to modern, to very modern American "folk" music, and the culmination of all three into one album and sound.

Here's California Stars.