FEISTMETALSORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 3RD 20111YRON&amp;#8217;S TOP 52 RECORDS OF 2011 RANKING:&nbsp;#22Things always seemed so simple for Leslie Feist. Then she became an internationally recognisable artist on the back of her third record, The Reminder, and everything was turned on its head. That record&amp;#8217;s lessons on love remain a blueprint for relationships and all of their ups and downs, yet even despite its occassionally downcast perspective it now feels positively jubilant in contrast to her fourth record, Metals. It&amp;#8217;s clear that Feist has undergone a transition of sorts in the four years between these two records. From playing hushed, intimate venues to ones five times the size where the majority of the audience leaves after 1234 has finished, Feist&amp;#8217;s brief stint in the spotlight was no doubt overwhelming for someone unaccustomed to such grandiose accolades and critical eyes. Metals is the sound of an artist responding to that unexpected success with a sensitivity and candor that is likely to win her new fans, but the kind who will stick around for the next record. And the one after that. Meanwhile, those who couldn&amp;#8217;t make it to the next song and left the show early will somehow forget that she still exists, and she&amp;#8217;ll be just fine with that. The Reminder clocked up US sales of close to 1 million. Metals, after one year, has just passed 140,000.It&amp;#8217;s unfair to suggest that Metals&nbsp;tries desperately to disassociate itself with The Reminder, since it follows a similar progression to that record&amp;#8217;s tonal qualities, but this is a much more socially aware Feist that we&amp;#8217;re left to grapple with. Opening track The Bad In Each Other is the strongest song she has released so far, packing ever weightier punches as it climaxes with clattering percussion. When I say strongest, I don&amp;#8217;t mean that I think it&amp;#8217;s her best song. Feist possesses a fragile yet potent vocal ability that enables her to sing songs like So Sorry and Intuition, stripped of instrumentation, with very little effort, and still hold her audience rapt. We&amp;#8217;ve become so accustomed to experiencing Feist as an acoustic chanteuse that when she really builds on those simple rhythmic permutations, such as on The Bad In Each Other, the results are often spellbinding. Graveyard follows in a similar fashion yet builds a rousing chorale of backing vocals towards its grey, muted backdrop. &amp;#8220;Bring &amp;#8216;em all back to life,&amp;#8221; it repeats, sitting somewhere between a resuscitation and a deeply controlled sigh. The pounding vocal chants of A Commotion provide an unexpected curveball as stop-start percussion rumbles around an unrelenting piano line. As perhaps the most unconventional moment on the record, it gives creedance to the claim that it&amp;#8217;s formed from the basic elements of The Reminder highlight Sea Lion Woman.Metals is filled with these sort of unconventional idiosyncrasies, yet only on A Commotion do they feel truly experimental. Other examples, such as the sumptuous sliding strings that surrender Anti-Pioneer to a cavernous expanse beyond its control, feel perfectly logical yet unexpected all at once. That&amp;#8217;s mainly because Metals remains a very elemental record from the word go, concerned with nature and the immediate surroundings in a way that most records don&amp;#8217;t. Feist is fascinated by the elements, or rather, the uncontrollable aspect of the elements. Caught A Long Wind never lifts itself beyond a flutter as strings quivver on the egde of a precipice, somehow making physical the static in the air before a storm hits. The second half of Metals is noticably more introvert than the first with big ballads like Anti-Pioneer and Undiscovered First taking the lead. Then there are the stripped down and ridiculously serene numbers like Comfort Me and Cicadas And Gulls. The former approaches the uncertainty of a relationship with an interesting take on vocals that rise to a spirited finale. The latter, meanwhile, pushes Feist into the sky with the birds as a solitary acoustic guitar provides just the