''The Reminder'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter
Feist. It was released on April 23, 2007 in countries outside of North America, and May 1, 2007 in the United States and Canada.
Following its release, it debuted on the US
''Billboard'' 200 at number 16, selling about 31,000 copies in its first week, and debuted at number 2 in Canada, selling just over 18,000 copies. As of July 25, 2011, the album has sold 729,000 copies in the US.
''The Reminder'' was also the best-selling album of 2007 on the iTunes Store.
On November 25, 2008, a deluxe edition of the album was released as a two-disc package featuring nine bonus tracks on the second disc.
Composition
Track 6 of the album, "Sealion", is an adaptation of a song by singer
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, ...
(''
Broadway-Blues-Ballads
''Broadway-Blues-Ballads'' is an album by the singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone, released in 1964.
Track listing
# "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, Sol Marcus) - 2:48
# "Night Song" (Lee Adams, Charles St ...
'', 1964). The original title was "See Line Woman" (a reference to
sealions was never intended), and refers to the life of an upper-class
sex worker
A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker"
According to one view, sex work is d ...
.
Promotion
''The Reminder'' was supported by four singles: "My Moon My Man", "1234", "I Feel It All", and "Honey Honey". The "My Moon My Man" single includes a remix by German electronic musician
Boys Noize
Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a Berlin-based German-Iraqi electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he estab ...
. Videos were directed by
Patrick Daughters
Patrick Daughters (born 1976 in Berkeley, California) is an American music videomaker and commercial director currently signed to Anonymous Content.
Daughters is a graduate of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. While still in colleg ...
, who also directed the video for "
Mushaboom".
During September 2007, the song "1234" was featured in Apple's
television advertisement
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
for the third-generation
iPod Nano
The iPod Nano (stylised and marketed as iPod nano) is a discontinued portable media player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. The first generation model was introduced on September 7, 2005, as a replacement for the iPod Mini, using ...
. The advert caused a sudden increase in the song's popularity, which resulted in a surge in the song's chart position. It reached number 8 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
on October 7 and number 8 in the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the week ending October 13. The music video was shot in a single unbroken take after two days of rehearsals.
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
also used the song in Australian advertisements. Another single, "My Moon My Man", was used in a
Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...
commercial.
Critical reception
This album was No. 35 on ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.
On July 10, 2007, the shortlist for the
Polaris Music Prize
The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was incr ...
was revealed. ''The Reminder'' was announced as a finalist, alongside such other acts as
The Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes ( ) are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Formed in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the band also includes Kevin Laing (drums), Richard White (guitar), Sheenah Ko (keyboa ...
,
Chad VanGaalen
Chad VanGaalen (born 1977) is a Canadian musician and artist from Calgary, Alberta.
Career
''Infiniheart''
Following a few scattered independent releases, done mostly on homemade CDs with hand-drawn art, VanGaalen released ''Infiniheart'' (2004 ...
, and eventual winner
Patrick Watson.
Kelefa Sanneh of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' ranked ''The Reminder'' at #1, and Jon Pareles ranked it at No. 2 on list of the 10 Best Albums of 2007.
''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine named "1234" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at #2. The song was written by Australian artist
Sally Seltmann
Sally may refer to:
People
*Sally (name), a list of notable people with the name
Military
*Sally (military), an attack by the defenders of a town or fortress under siege against a besieging force; see sally port
*Sally, the Allied reporting nam ...
(a.k.a. New Buffalo). Writer
Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel is an American journalist. He was previously the deputy managing editor of ''TIME'' magazine and an editor at ''Bloomberg Businessweek''.Stephanie Clifford (November 17, 2009"Josh Tyrangiel Named Editor of BusinessWeek"/ref> In Ju ...
called the song a “masterpiece”, praising Feist for singing it "with a mixture of wisdom and exuberance that's all her own."
Less than a year after its release, ''
Blender
A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...
'' listed the album 80th on their list of The 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever.
Online music magazine ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' placed ''The Reminder'' at number 112 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.
Feist won the 2007
Shortlist Music Prize
The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as (shôrt–lĭst), was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under ...
for ''The Reminder''; she is the second woman (after
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and model. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a ...
) to ever win the award.
It won
Juno Awards in 2008 for
Pop Album of the Year and for
Album of the Year. After winning her 5 Junos, in Canada her album sales shot back up the chart from No. 12 to No. 2, the position her album debuted at. It was also nominated for
Best Pop Vocal Album
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality vocal pop music albums. Awards in several ...
at the
50th Grammy Awards
The 50th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2008. It honored musical achievement of 2007 in which albums were released between October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. The primary ceremonies ...
.
Track listing
* "Sealion" contains elements from "
Sea Lion Woman" by George Bass and Nina Simone.
;UK bonus track
#
"Honey Honey" (Live at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall
The Danforth Music Hall (originally Allen's Danforth Theatre) is a music venue and event theatre on Danforth Avenue in the neighbourhood of Riverdale in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is served by Broadview station on the TTC's Bloor–Danforth ...
) – 4:37
;Japanese bonus tracks
# "Intuition" (Live at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall) – 6:14
# "My Moon My Man" (video) – 3:41
# "1234" (video) – 3:14
;iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
bonus tracks
#"Sealion" (Feist, Bass, Simone) (Chromeo
Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from blue-eyed soul, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk.
, the band has rele ...
remix) – 3:45
#"The Water" (Red demos) – 4:13
;Best Buy bonus tracks
#"Honey Honey" (live with fade out) – 4:34
#"Intuition" (live with fade out) – 6:14
#"Fighting Away the Tears" (with Mocky) – 3:17
;Deluxe edition second disc bonus tracks
#"I Feel It All" ( Escort Remix)
#"Sealion" (Chromeo
Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from blue-eyed soul, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk.
, the band has rele ...
Remix)
#"My Moon My Man" (Boys Noize
Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a Berlin-based German-Iraqi electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he estab ...
Classic Mix)
#"1234" (Van She
Van She are an electropop band formed in 2002 in Sydney, Australia, with Matt Van Schie (pronounced Van Ski) on bass guitar/vocals, Tomek Archer on drums/sequencer, Michael Di Francesco on synth/guitar and Nicholas Routledge on vocals/guitar. ...
Remix)
#"Fightin' Away the Tears" ith Mocky#"So Sorry" (One Mic Mix)
#"My Moon My Man" (Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...
Remix)
#Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene is a Canadians, Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Cannin ...
: "Lover's Spit" (Redux)
#" Islands in the Stream" (with The Constantines
Constantines is an indie rock band from Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
History
Constantines was formed in 1999 by vocalist and guitarist Bryan Webb, drummer Doug MacGregor and guitarist Paul Bright, all of whom had played together in the emo band Sho ...
)
#"My Moon My Man" ideo
IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...
#"1234" (Director's Cut) ideo
IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...
#"I Feel It All" ideo
IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...
#"Honey Honey" ideo
IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environ ...
Singles
Physical Singles
*" My Moon My Man"
*" 1234"
*"I Feel It All
"I Feel It All" is a song by Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter Feist, released as the third single from her third full-length album, ''The Reminder'' (2007), in 2008. The song was acclaimed by music critics and appeared on several music char ...
"
Digital Downloads
*" My Moon My Man"
*" 1234"
*"I Feel It All
"I Feel It All" is a song by Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter Feist, released as the third single from her third full-length album, ''The Reminder'' (2007), in 2008. The song was acclaimed by music critics and appeared on several music char ...
"
*" Sea Lion Woman"
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
!scope="row", Worldwide
,
, 1,500,000
, -
Personnel
''(Expressions in italics taken from the album credits)''
*Feist – vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
, acoustic and electric guitars
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
, banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
, piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
on "The Water"
*Chilly Gonzales – piano, organs
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...
, vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
, drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
*Jesse Baird – drums
*Mocky – acoustic bass
The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...
, Farfisa
Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professiona ...
, organ
*Bryden Baird – trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
, flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...
, percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*Julian Brown – electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck
The ...
, melodica
The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...
*Jamie Lidell
Jamie Alexander Lidderdale (born 18 September 1973, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England), known professionally as Jamie Lidell, is an English musician, soul singer and podcast host living in Nashville, Tennessee. Lidell was formerly a part of ...
– ''energy arrangement'' and vocals on "So Sorry"
*''Town Hall'' (Jamie Lidell, Julian Brown, Bryden Baird, Mocky, Jesse Baird, Chilly Gonzales and Feist) – group percussion and backup vocals
;Guests
*Ohad Benchetrit
Ohad Benchetrit is a Canadian musician. He plays guitar, bass, saxophone and flute for the post-rock band Do Make Say Think, and has also contributed to albums by Broken Social Scene, Feist, The Hidden Cameras and Charles Spearin.
He coll ...
– ''the mystery on the bridge'' of "My Moon My Man"
*Charles Spearin
Charles Spearin is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist from Toronto, Ontario. He is primarily known as a founding member of indie rock bands Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene.
Career
As a teen, Spearin studied at Etobicoke School of the A ...
– ''the mystery on the bridge'' of "My Moon My Man"
* Afie Jurvanen – ''leader of the lead guitars on the bridge'' of "Sealion"
*Sandra Baron – violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
on "The Limit to Your Love" and "1234"
*Mary Stein – cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
on "The Limit to Your Love" and "1234"
*Ben Mink
Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the m ...
– strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
and acoustic rhythm guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...
on "1234"
*Kevin Drew
Kevin Drew (born September 9, 1976) is a Canadian musician and songwriter who, together with Brendan Canning, founded the expansive Toronto baroque-pop collective Broken Social Scene. He was also part of the lesser-known KC Accidental, which con ...
– backing vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...
on "Honey Honey"
*Brendan Canning Brendan may refer to:
People
* Saint Brendan the Navigator (c. 484 – c. 577) was an Irish monastic saint.
* Saint Brendan of Birr (died 573), Abbot of Birr in Co. Offaly, contemporaneous with the above
* Brendan (given name), a masculine given na ...
– backing vocals on "Honey Honey"
*Pierre Luc Jamain – organ bass on "Honey Honey"
*Lori Gemmel – harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
on "Honey Honey"
*Eirik Glambek Bøe
Eirik Glambek Bøe (born 25 October 1975) is a Norwegian musician, writer and vocalist, best known for being part of the indie folk duo Kings of Convenience together with Erlend Øye. He has a degree in psychology from the University of Berge ...
– vocals on "How My Heart Behaves"
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reminder, The
2007 albums
Feist (singer) albums
Arts & Crafts Productions albums
Polydor Records albums
Juno Award for Album of the Year albums
Juno Award for Pop Album of the Year albums