Metals

There are two traps that Leslie Feist could have fallen into after the unexpected, TV-driven success of her atypical single "1234," and to her credit, the Canadian singer-songwriter avoids both of them. No one would seriously expect her to attempt to cash in on her fleeting pop success, of course; the more likely danger was that she would make an impenetrable, self-consciously "difficult" follow-up to re-establish her artsy indie cred. Encouragingly, Metals is not that record. Unfortunately, it's also simply not very interesting. Obviously, "1234" was an outlier, but Feist's previous albums included equally engaging tunes like "I Feel It All," "Mushaboom" and "My Moon, My Man," and there's simply nothing on Metals that imprints itself onto the listener like those songs. Written and produced with her usual collaborators Chilly Gonzales and Mocky, the album keeps Feist's vocals and lyrics front and center, but her delivery feels oddly disconnected and wan, and the melodies aren't particularly inventive or memorable. Only occasionally, as on the Judee Sill-like allegory "The Circle Married The Line" and the beautifully desolate "Anti-Pioneer," does Feist feint toward the sound of her earlier, better work. Elsewhere, a couple of genuinely irritating production choices -- most gratingly the incongruous football-chant chorus on "A Commotion" -- mar otherwise credible songs. Leslie Feist escapes outright disaster here, but only by making a record it's hard to get particularly excited over one way or the other.