Feel It Break

"Beat and the Pulse" was released as the album's lead single on November 16, 2010.^[4] An accompanying music video was released three months later. Directed by Claire Edmondson, the video shows singer Katie Stelmanis in a room surrounded by scantily clad women dancing in a suggestive manner.^[10]

The second single from the album, "Lose It", was released on May 9, 2011, a week before the album. A video for the single was released on May 4. The video shows the band posing around on a living room set dressed in different costumes. At one point, Stelmanis looks out a window and sees a missile frozen in mid-air. The video was directed by M Blash.^[11]

"Spellwork" was released as the third and final single on September 5, 2011. A music video was released on YouTube four months later. The music video, directed by Yelena Yemchuk, shows the band portraying mysterious figures wandering through a forest while a group of women engage in rituals reminiscent of the opening scenes of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.^[12]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[13]
Metacritic	75/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
The A.V. Club	B[16]
Clash	8/10[17]
The Guardian	[18]
NME	7/10[19]
Now	4/5[20]
Pitchfork	7.3/10[21]
PopMatters	6/10[22]
Slant Magazine	[23]
Spin	7/10[24]

Feel It Break received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on 24 reviews.^[14] Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that Stelmanis "shar[es] the aloof beauty of Glasser, Esben and the Witch, Fever Ray, and Zola Jesus. Unlike some of the band's peers, however, there's a humanity to Stelmanis' vocals that, even when distorted, keeps Feel It Break's songs from feeling too remote", concluding that "Austra carve out a place of their own among their contemporaries."^[15] The Guardian's Michael Hann agreed, stating that although the band "have been lumped in with the synth-gothisms" of Zola Jesus and Fever Ray, "there's a cleanliness and sharpness about [Austra] that belies those associations."^[18] Similarly, Benjamin Boles of Now commented that the band's "dark electronic production and soaring vocals are often compared to acts like Fever Ray and Zola Jesus, but [...] Stelmanis brings a more musical sensibility to the formula, even if it's still miles away from mainstream pop", praising the album as an "extremely strong debut".^[20] Charlie Frame of Clash expressed, "The songwriting and production are strong throughout and often Stelmanis acquires a surprisingly rich amount of warmth from her dramatically sweeping sound that's rarely heard in this scene."^[17]

Pitchfork's Tom Breihan commented that Austra "play a warm, hazy sort of electro-goth" and added that "Austra's synth riffs don't pound or undulate; they flutter and envelop. And Stelmanis doesn't sing over the top of their tracks; she emits sound from somewhere in the thick of it."^[21] Andy Beta of Spin opined that the band's "seedy synth pop more often recalls Kate Bush's dramatic art songs and the Knife's ghostly techno-pop [...] But from surging, operatic opener 'Darken Her Horse' to closing piano ballad 'Lose It', Stelmanis' voice and vision are mostly her own."^[24] Slant Magazine's Paul Schrodt noted that the album "combines the atmospherics of darker new wave with a thumping, Giorgio Moroder-type beat. It's big in scope, but clean in sound. Every detail of the production feels carefully thought out."^[23] In a mixed review, Laura Snapes of NME commended the album's first half, but felt that the second half does not "quite [hit] such ecstatic peaks", adding that "although Katie's piano skills are impressive, final song 'The Beast' is too stripped back and literal, erring a teensy bit on Evanescence balladry."^[19] Arnold Pan of PopMatters called the album "promising" and characterized Stelmanis' "eccentric" voice as "[u]nique and resembling nothing except itself", but remarked that "Feel It Break as a whole is a little uneven because Austra still seems to be looking to strike the right balance between its different parts."^[22]

Feel It Break was shortlisted for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize, but lost out to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.^[25] It was also nominated for Electronic Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2012.^[26]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Feel It Break.^[35]

• Katie Stelmanis
• Maya Postepski
• Dorian Wolf

• Anna-Sophia Vukovitch – violin (track 10)
• Anissa Hart – cello (track 10)
• Ewan Kay – trombone (track 9)
• Carmen Elle – guitar (tracks 10, 11)

• Jeremy Darby – piano recording (tracks 2, 3, 6, 8, 11)
• Damian Taylor – additional recording (tracks 1, 2, 8, 10, 11); frequency harmonization, level balance, tone mixing (all tracks)
• Austra – production
• Mike Haliechuk – co-production (tracks 1, 4)
• Joe Lambert – mastering

• Kate Young – photo art
• Rob Carmichael – design