Feist: Metals

last updated 8 January 2015

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If fame has done anything to change Feist, it’s empowered her “to make her boldest statement yet,” said James Reed in The Boston Globe. Far from cashing in on recent success, the Canadian indie rocker has gone darker, with songs that are “more impressionistic, brash in their knotty arrangements, and assured in their execution.” After spending years toiling in near obscurity, Feist caught fire when her catchy single “1234” was featured in a 2007 iPod commercial. Though the songs here are gloomier sonically and lyrically, each one is “as sturdy as oak,” said Garrett Kamps in Spin. The guitars shimmer, and “every instrument seems bathed in its own spotlight,” while Feist’s vocals “feel like they’re being whispered directly into your ear.” The only disappointments are that Metals is a bit too repetitive and “lacks a certain cohesive magic.” Even with experimental touches—odd percussion, layered vocals—“the record feels a bit monochromatic, like a just-fun-enough surrey ride whose background keeps repeating.”