The latest cut from her forthcoming sixth album Multitudes (out April 14) is a multi-layered and deeply affecting rumination on the human condition. “Borrow Trouble” is accompanied by a kaleidoscopic music video, which riffs on the title of her new album.
“It happens at the break of day, before your wits are gathered, even before you are awake,” the alt-pop icon sings over gentle guitar strums and sparse percussion. “Put dissent into your ear, even before your eyes are open the plot has thickened round your fear.” The track really takes flight on the chorus, erupting with fuzzy strings and pulsating drumming as Feist dissects the hopes, doubts, and emotions that make us tick.
The video, which offers literal multitudes of the acclaimed singer-songwriter, is deceptively simple. In a rehearsal or recording space, Feist sings along to “Borrow Trouble” as a camera effect multiplies her every move. The performance and technology render her every twist and turn a layer in an ever-growing bloom of joyous movement. For a song — and project — deeply rooted in sheer wonder, the visual is suitably dazzling.
“’Borrow Trouble’ caused some trouble in trying to finish the recording,” comments Feist of the new single. “It began as a contemplative acoustic morality tale and shape shifted itself into the sound of trouble itself. It’s a mess that holds its own logic. It’s the convincing cacophony that thoughts can be. It saws away at you until your overwhelm pops an air supply in the form of another idea, a solution that starts with accepting there’s no such thing as perfection.”
“Mike Mills (the filmmaker), directed me deeper into the tangle, insisted I play drums ‘because you’re not a drummer!’ and Amir Yaghmai brought the fist pumping drone of violins. Early on, when I was writing it Charles Spearin said ‘yah but what does borrowing trouble mean?’” And I said “It’s an expression from the old days,” which became the chorus. “May as well let the song explain, like I’m doing now.”
Feist – 2023 Multitudes U.S. Tour
5/2 Madison, WI The Sylvee
5/3 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
5/5 Chicago, IL Radius
5/6 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
5/7 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl
5/9 Atlanta, GA Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre
5/10 Raleigh, NC The Ritz
5/12 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
5/13 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
5/14 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
5/15 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore
5/17 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall at Fenway
5/18 Toronto, ON HISTORY
5/19 Montréal, QC MTelus
7/11 Halifax, NS Halifax Jazz Festival
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