Leslie Feist: Metals

It's been a few years since we last heard from Leslie Feist. The success of The Reminder (2007) left us satisfied enough to warrant her four-year hiatus, without even realizing, at least in my case, that we desperately needed more. Her fourth album, Metals, was released in the United States on Oct. 3. Those expecting a pop album in the wake of The Reminder may be disappointed; Metals exposes

Feist in a new light. The song titles on the album suggest that she's entered a new adulthood. Names like "Graveyard" and "The Circle Married the Line" intimate a kind of finality. And the subject matters on which she writes are different too. On The Reminder, Feist is still figuring things out: in "How My Heart Behaves" she explores the

origin of a broken heart ("What grew and inside who?") and in "I Feel It All" she explains what she has learned from past relationship mistakes. But on Metals Feist has gone from lyrical sage to a full blown Grandmother Willow.

The album opens with an authority unprecedented on her other albums, that announces right away: Feist means business. The first track "The Bad in Each Other" details how love can miss the mark: "The good man and the

good woman bring out…the bad in each other." She is obviously disenchanted with conventional courtship. Other notable tracks include "Undiscovered First" and "A Commotion," the highest energy track on the record.

A first time listener may be hard-pressed to become enamored with the album. Feist is a well of genuine talent among the tides of prefab female vocalists rising and

falling on the billboard charts. Admittedly, it takes more than

one listen to truly appreciate her style of music. It's just too slowpaced for most people. And on several tracks she uses what sounds like a children's choir on backing vocals, which I think is just a little cliché. But overall, it's a

blessing to have Feist back on the music scene with an album no less laudable than the last.