Leslie Feist’s impressive year hit another high note Thursday when she was nominated for four Grammy Awards, including new artist and pop vocal album.
The night before, she had delivered a gig in London, Ontario, the last of a 25-concert fall tour. She has only two gigs left on this year’s calendar — KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas Show on Sunday and homecoming gig in Toronto on the 18th.
After that, she says, it’s “stringing popcorn and cranberries with my nieces” for most of December, which will also find her shooting a video for “I Feel It All” with director of her “1234” video, Patrick Daughters. He also received a Grammy nom for what is probably 2007’s most seen vid clip.
“We came together with the same spirit - the video was a compete joy to make because I was with people who I felt were at the same point in their lives as I was in mine,” Feist says of the “1234” shoot. “We went into it playdate style, making  two videos in three days. I thought ‘My Moon My Man’ was the winner but then Apple wanted (‘1234’). TV wasn’t playing it and I felt like here’s this other station called Apple and they want to air one video and it’s mine. I had no idea what could happen – I knew none of the logistics other than it was (to be aired) for three months maximum.”
Apple picked up the “1234” video, used it in the iTunes ad and breathed new life into her album “Reminder,” which has now sold nearly 400,000 copies. Since the ad broke, she has shared a co-headliner concert tour with Spoon, received expanded airplay and started to appear on year-end critical lists; her calendar for 2008 is fast filling up with tours that will take her to Australia, Japan, Canada and the U.S.
“I live in a bubble,” she says, trying to clarify how the past year has affected her. “(I see life) in the context of gigs , the size of venues and the quality of the mood in a room. My awareness (of success) is statistical; my day to day is on the frontlines.”

Amazon's editors are among the first group out of the block with their top picks of the year, annointing Feist's "The Reminder" album of the year.
Fascinating, though, that a website that makes its money from albums that actually sell, the top 20 portion of the list is full of discs that have had, at best, moderate sales success."The Reminder," for example, is a breakout hit with sales of 359,000 through Nov. 18 and only two of the top 20 have topped the million-sold mark. Amazon is suddenly looking like the one retailer willing to place the praiseworthy alongside the commercial, a differentiation that is disappearing in the cyberspace chase for the quick buck.   
A further breakdown of the online retailer's top 20:
MAJOR LABEL RELEASES: 10
INDIE RELEASES:10
DEBUTS:1
MAJOR LABEL DEBUTS:1
U.K. ACTS: 6.5*
U.S. ACTS: 9.5*
ROCK: 4
RAP: 2
COUNTRY:1
R&B:0
POP: 2
DEAD GUYS: 1
ALTERNATIVE SOMETHING-OR-OTHER: 11
TOP SELLER: Kanye West's "Graduation" (No. 3) with 1.7 million units sold.
NO. 100: Neil Young's "Chrome Dreams II"
SURPRISES: Daniel Johns, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, Mark Knopfler

*Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's album causes the half point

Nielsen SoundScan's chart saw a slew of debuts Wednesday as the Sept. 25 release date was the last Tuesday within the Grammy eligibility period and the the last release date before the start of the fourth quarter. Top 200 boasted 45 debuts.
Chart also revealed:
Country fans like their CDs.Only 8% of the 547,000 copies sold of Rascal Flatts' "Still Feels Good" were digital downloads, and that was still a record amount (44,000).
Rap records struggle to not lose more than 60% of their business in the second week. Latest victim: Chamillionaire, who sold 27,000 and slid to No. 30 from No. 8.
Black Eyed Peas fans don't feel that strongly about the group's leader, will.i.am, who sold a mere 21,000 copies of his first solo disc despite considerable publicity for the disc.
Selling a song to a ubiquitous commercial yields album sales. Feist's "Reminder," featuring "1,2,3,4" that plays over and over on Apple's video nano ad, rose eight slots to No. 28 on a 33% sales spike.
Steve Earle's first album since he moved to New York City, Washington Square Serenade," sold 10,000 copies.
Cult heroes Devendra Banhart sold 6,000 albums as did Jose Gonzalez's "In Our Nature" and Herbie Hancock's interpretations of Joni Mitchell songs, "River: The Joni Letters." Iron & Wine, though, may have leapfrogged into the mainstream, selling 32,000 copies of "Shepherd's Dog."
Ingrid Michaelson, a musician with 3 million plays on her MySpace page who recently snared a placement on "Grey's Anatomy," saw her "Girls & Boys" crack the chart, selling 4,000 copies to open at No. 166.

Sales of Feist's album "Reminder" have more than doubled since the release of Apple's iPod commercial featuring her single "1, 2, 3, 4." "Reminder" sold 14,000 copies in the week ended Sunday, up from six grand sold last week, which led to the disc rising to No. 44 from No. 95, Nielsen Soundscan reported.