Feist: “In Lightning”

“In Lightning,” the most striking of the three singles from Feist’s forthcoming album Multitudes, is wonderfully ramshackle in a way that fits her milieu: There’s a hint of old Tune-Yards and Dirty Projectors in there, while the interplay of onomatopoeic vocal layers, skittering drums, and string parts is reminiscent of Vespertine-era Björk. Feist talks of keeping her energy intact in a hectic world as strings zip by like a bug zooming in your ear; there’s a guitar part that, when echoed by angular synths, stands out as much melodically as the striking nonsense hook. It all retains the common feeling in her music of pieces falling together, each element getting its own space to shine. The queen of controlled calamity has officially returned.