Feist

While Leslie Feist's backstory -- rapped with Peaches, sang with Broken Social Scene, opened for the Ramones -- is compelling, it won't tell you anything about Let It Die. Rather, this sophomore disc is sleek, adult-hipster pop, slicker than an otter's tail. Better than 90 percent of the freak-folk crap out there, Die is ripe with gorgeous organ riffs and jazzy guitars, inflected with subtle electronic textures. The songs are full of clever couplets about love gone awry, delivered by Feist in either a brassy coo or a heartbroken moan. Far removed from her eccentric beginnings, Feist's new disc is '80s soft-rock updated for the modern era -- what Sade or Bonnie Raitt might've sounded like if they were produced by Massive Attack.