Clockenflap headliner Feist on her Hong Kong debut, Apple and a new musical direction
Canadian singer-songwriter Lesley Feist had a string of folk-pop hits in the noughties, but her latest album is a darker, angry reflection of her state of mind. The contrast will make her Clockenflap performance a compelling one
Not any more. After six years in the shadows, during which the Canadian singer-songwriter is said to have gone through a break-up and breakdown, Lesley Feist returned earlier this year with Pleasure, an album so removed from her folk-pop heyday as to sound like a completely different artist.
Pleasure is a collection of bitter songs that sit awkwardly beside the warm jauntiness of her hits from the past decade, promising to make her headline appearance on Friday night at Clockenflap festival one of the most compelling of the event.
Massive Attack, Feist to headline Hong Kong’s Clockenflap festival 2017
“Each album feels like a reflection of my state of mind and state of heart at the time I make it,” she responds in opaque style when questioned by the Post on what brought about such a turnaround. “Pleasure was as true to that reflection as the past albums have been.”
Feist sat out the start of the new decade after spending the previous few years in a near-giddy whirl of pop success. Her single 1234 was an earworm assault on the charts in 2007, followed by two acclaimed albums and mega sales for her next three CDs. They established her as the Cat Power it was safe to like – a purveyor of intelligent but warm and approachable pop whose meticulously choreographed ensemble dance videos portrayed a joyous free spirit.
In contrast to the music she was raised on – thrash metal – her act was wholesome and jubilant. Even her grungy past of playing in punk bands and sharing a home with shock-rocker Peaches couldn’t tarnish her indie-pop princess image.
After touring for her fifth album Metals, fatigue set in and a darkness began to shroud her. Her hiatus seems to have been emotionally gruelling. In interviews, she’s only dropped hints at what those years inflicted. Instead she’s let Pleasure do the talking.
The Prodigy to headline Saturday night at Hong Kong’s Clockenflap festival
Brimming with angsty, brittle tracks such as I Wish I Didn’t Miss You and Lost Dreams, the album sees Feist revealing a fractured soul, battered by lost love and bitter disappointment. The former track is her angriest yet, with the snarling line “how could I live if you’re still alive?” setting the album’s tone.
