A lot has changed for Leslie Feist in the last four years.
After the release of 2007’s excellent The Reminder, Feist began a whirlwind ride to the top of the charts, selling out concerts worldwide. She gained various award nominations and sold more than 1,000,000 copies worldwide (761,000 in the United States). She even appeared on Sesame Street with Elmo.
Feist became a bona fide star, all thanks to one catchy tune and an iPod commercial.
The difference between The Reminder and her newly released Metals doesn’t just lie in the subject matter, but in the overall sound and tone of the two records.
The Reminder itself was a big transition from Feist’s previous effort. Let it Die (2005) was more of a showcase for Feist’s promising talent, touting singer-songwriter-like acoustic tracks.
With The Reminder, Feist broadened her range to the overly poppy “1234,” the textbook alternative “Past in Present,” the experimental “Honey, Honey,” and of course the acoustic singer-songwriter “Intuition.”
With Metals, Feist instead focuses on a cohesive, dark, outrageously well-produced art-rock sound rather than an eclectic bag of goodies as before.
While some would attribute this to growth as a musician, the proof may also be in the recording conditions.
Metals was written and recorded in a small cabin by the Pacific Ocean in California in February as evidenced by a note and drawing Feist, herself, left on her website.
While the road can be a lonely place, which is what most of the subject matter of The Reminder pertains to, it is very spacious and there is a lot of room to breathe.
Much like the recording atmosphere, The Reminder allowed Feist to breathe and open herself up to new sounds.
Her loneliness resonated and expanded over each song and gave it an airy atmosphere.
But there is a lot of difference between the open road and a small cabin.
The emotions pouring out of Metals seem secluded in a small space with just herself and her music.
Where life on the road allowed her to learn and see new things, Feist exiling herself to the small cabin, allowed her to be alone with her thoughts and focus all energy into dark and brooding arrangements for the album.
Tracks like “The Bad in Each Other,” “Caught in a Long Wind” and “Undiscovered First,” are good examples of this new sound.
Metals is not the depressing album that The Reminder was, it is in your face brute honesty that does not hide behind a mask.
What you are hearing is what you are getting; and with this newfound honesty, we see Feist at not just the highest point of her musical career, but also her most personal.
Lyrically, Metals falls somewhere between Let it Die and The Reminder – not in quality, but in content and context. Let it Die was essentially a breakup record, as evidenced by the title.
The Reminder somewhat followed the same suite, telling tales of lost love, breakups and then recollection and remembrance of the affair (This is well illustrated in its closing moment, “Intuition.”).
Metals is a little more abstract.
Most of the album seems to deal with the conflicted feeings of not sure when something should end. This is evidenced on the track “The Circle Married the Line,” with lines like “It’s as much as it is / as what it is not,” and speaking of a constant search for clarity pointing to the end.
The album’s single “How Come You Never Go There” ups the ante by stating “It’s true enough we’re not at peace / but peace is never what it seems / our love is not the light it was / when I walk inside the dark I’m clam,” and also, “We’re living proof we gotta let go.”
Lastly, the heartbreaking and haiku-filled “Comfort Me” spells the cracks in the relationship more clearly with the bitter “When you comfort me / it doesn’t bring me comfort / actually.” Based of this, it’s safe to say the title is a metaphor; while a metal is nice and shiny on the outside, inside it is hard and cold, much like a dead relationship.
It’s also safe to say that although this is the best album of Feist’s career to date, it is nowhere near as accessible as The Reminder. While some will applaud the cohesive, avant-garde pop nature of the album, others will feel alienated by it – especially those who were first introduced to Feist in her sparkling blue body suit singing and dancing in an empty warehouse to “1234.” However, an excellent body of work should not go unrewarded. Expect this album to make many year-end lists and be nominated for numerous awards come next year.
The Verdict: 91%