There’s always been a disconnect between Leslie Feist’s music — soothing, thoughtful, deliberately crafted — and her warm, wryly funny personality. We got to witness both in her long-awaited Tiny Desk debut, which finds her showcasing new and old material amid self-effacing commentary on the pandemic, public speaking and her strange moment of reality-TV fame.

“The great joke that will always remain about [her song ‘Hiding Out in the Open’] is that we ended up singing it to contestants on The Bachelor — where true love rules all, of course,” Feist said between songs. “So singing truisms about eternal love to youth on a game show changed the context forever.”

Performing two songs from last year’s wonderful Multitudes (“In Lightning” and “Hiding Out in the Open”) and two songs from 2011’s Metals (“Caught a Long Wind” and “The Bad in Each Other”), Feist was joined by a group of players and singers who’ve each performed notable work in their own right: Keyboardist Rose Droll is a terrific solo singer-songwriter, drummer Andrew Barr plays in The Slip and The Barr Brothers, bassist Todd Dahlhoff often plays and records with Devendra Banhart and Meshell Ndegeocello, and multi-instrumentalist Amir Yaghmai is a member of The Voidz. Together, though, they sound like one impeccable organism, with Feist herself as its bold, unfailingly kind beating heart.

SET LIST

• “In Lightning”

• “Caught a Long Wind”

• “Hiding Out in the Open”

• “The Bad in Each Other”

MUSICIANS

• Leslie Feist: lead vocals, guitar

• Amir Yaghmai: violin, guitar, vocals

• Todd Dahlhoff: bass, vocals, musical direction

• Andrew Barr: drums

• Rose Droll: keys, piano, vocals 

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Stephen Thompson 

• Director: Joshua Bryant 

• Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault

• Editor: Kara Frame

• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter

• Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Zayrha Rodriguez 

• Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna

• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer 

• Photographer: Michael Zamora 

• Tiny Desk Team: Hazel Cills, Maia Stern 

• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson

• VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2024, NPR