Metals (album)

Metals is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Feist. It was released on September 30, 2011 in Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Belgium; October 3, 2011 in the United Kingdom; and October 4, 2011 in the United States and Canada.[1][2][3] The first single from the album is "How Come You Never Go There", which was released on August 12, 2011.[4] The album was supported by a world tour which started in Amsterdam, Netherlands on October 15, 2011 and finished on October 20, 2012 in Latin America.[5][6]

Metals
Studio album by
Feist
ReleasedSeptember 30, 2011
RecordedFebruary 15 – March 17, 2011
StudioBig Sur, California
Length49:58
Label
Producer
Feist chronology
The Reminder
(2007)		 Metals
(2011)		 Pleasure
(2017)
Singles from Metals
  1. "How Come You Never Go There"
    Released: August 12, 2011

Metals debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number 7, and sold 38,000 copies in its first week. It earned Feist's best sales week and it was her first top 10 album to chart in the US. The album received acclaim from critics.

Promotion

Promotion for the album began with short videos which feature snippets of tracks and the making of the album. They were posted on her website and other social networking sites since July 21, 2011.[7] Four days after, she officially announced the release of Metals.[8] Artwork for the album was revealed on August 2, 2011;[5] previously, fans were given the opportunity to select the color design for the album cover on Facebook.[9]

Writing and recording

After touring for her previous album, The Reminder, Feist was "emotionally deaf".[10] She stopped playing music for two years,[10] saying that she "wasn't curious anymore".[11] In 2010, she went to the studio in Paris where she had recorded The Reminder. After coming back from Paris six months later, she wrote most of the album.[12] For recording Metals, Feist went to Big Sur with the lyrics almost completed and set up an ad hoc recording studio.[12] Metals was recorded in Toronto and Big Sur, with collaborators including Chilly Gonzales, Mocky, Brian LeBarton, Dean Stone, and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson.[8][13] They began recording the album in January 2011. The album's title was partially inspired by Charles C. Mann's non-fiction book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.[12] She said of the recording process that "I allowed for mistakes more than I ever have, which end up not being mistakes when you open things up and make room for them."[14]

Composition

For the album, Feist aimed for a sound she described as "modern ancient", mixing old and new instruments.[10] She stated that the album had "more chaos and movement and noise than I've had before." [14] The music of Metals is influenced by genres such as jazz and the blues, and contains elements of folk.[15][16] The lyrics of Metals contain a lot of "nature imagery", as Feist was fascinated by the weather since "it makes you feel so minute."[11] They also contemplate topics such as dying love, mortality and solitude.[10] She also pointed to "Sealion" from The Reminder and said that it "grandfathered some of the concepts in Metals". There are many minor chords and open fifths on Metals, as well as a lot of voices sung in unison.[11] The songs "How Come You Never Go There" and "Anti-Pioneer" are ballads,[10][17] the latter she had worked on for ten years.[10]

Reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.8/10[18]
Metacritic81/100[19]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[20]
The A.V. ClubB+[21]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[15]
The Guardian[22]
The Independent[23]
Los Angeles Times[24]
NME8/10[25]
Pitchfork7.7/10[26]
Rolling Stone[27]
Spin7/10[28]

Metals debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling about 38,000 copies. It was Feist's best ever sales week, and was her first appearance on the top 10 of the Billboard 200.[29] At Metacritic, a website which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 81, based on 39 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]

Spin gave "Metals" a score of 7/10, writing "Taken individually, each song is as sturdy as oak -- the guitars have a magnesium shimmer, and every instrument seems bathed in its own spotlight, especially Feist's vocals, which feel like they're being whispered directly into your ear."[28] In a positive review, Lindsay Zoladz of Pitchfork Media gave the album a 7.7 out of 10. She noted that there was no "1234" on the album, which is the reason that "it feels like such a refreshing and slyly badass statement of artistic integrity" and also that "it doesn't reach The Reminder's heights."[26] Andrew Leahey of AllMusic wrote that "Feist's days as a provider of hip, trendy TV jingles may be over", and that "Metals does its best work at a slower speed".[20]

Elysa Gardner of USA Today gave the album 2.5 stars out of 4, and named "The Bad in Each Other" and "Caught a Long Wind" as the highlights of the album.[30] A mixed review from Slant Magazine criticized most of the album for not having a "real spark to it" and stated that "Metals is too dull for [Feist] to overcome".[31]

The album has received a number of accolades. The New York Times and The Globe and Mail named Metals as the best album of 2011.[32][33] Uncut and Paste named it the 17th and 29th best album of 2011, respectively.[34][35] Q named it the 29th best album of 2011.[36] Feist was nominated for Best International Female Artist at the 2012 BRIT Awards for Metals.[37]

The album was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize on June 14, 2012.[38] The album won the Polaris Music Prize making her the first female artist to win the award and, as of September 25, 2012, it has sold 141,000 copies in the U.S.[39] As of January 2012 UK sales stand at 40,000 copies according to The Guardian.[40]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Leslie Feist, except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."The Bad in Each Other"4:44
2."Graveyard" (Feist, Mocky, Chilly Gonzales)4:17
3."Caught a Long Wind" (Feist, Mocky, Chilly Gonzales)4:54
4."How Come You Never Go There"3:24
5."A Commotion"3:53
6."The Circle Married the Line" (Feist, Brian LeBarton)3:22
7."Bittersweet Melodies" (Feist, Mocky)3:56
8."Anti-Pioneer"5:33
9."Undiscovered First"4:58
10."Cicadas and Gulls"3:16
11."Comfort Me"4:04
12."Get It Wrong Get It Right"3:39
Total length:49:58
iTunes Store bonus track:[41]
No.TitleLength
13."Pine Moon"4:52
Amazon.com bonus track:[42]
No.TitleLength
13."Woe Be"3:13
Japanese Edition (UICO-1228) bonus tracks:
No.TitleLength
13."Woe Be"3:13
14."Pine Moon"4:52
15."How Come You Never Go There (Acoustic)"3:54
Total length:62:17

Personnel

Charts
Chart (2011) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart[43] 17
Austrian Albums Chart[43] 11
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[43] 7
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[43] 18
Canadian Albums Chart[44] 2
Danish Albums Chart[43] 10
Dutch Albums Chart[43] 34
Finnish Albums Chart[43] 30
French Albums Chart[43] 9
German Albums Chart[45] 6
Irish Albums Chart[45] 27
New Zealand Albums Chart[43] 13
Norwegian Albums Chart[43] 10
Portuguese Albums Chart[43] 21
Spanish Albums Chart[43] 72
Swedish Albums Chart[43] 18
Swiss Albums Chart[43] 9
UK Albums Chart[45] 28
U.S. Billboard 200[44] 7
U.S. Billboard Rock Albums[44] 1

Certifications and sales
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[46] Platinum 80,000^
France — 20,000[47]
United Kingdom — 40,000[40]
United States — 141,000[39]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Tour

Metals Tour [5][48][49]

Opening act
Date City Country Venue
Europe
15 October 2011 Amsterdam Netherlands Carre Theater
17 October 2011 London United Kingdom Palladium
19 October 2011 Brussels Belgium Cirque Royal
20 October 2011 Paris France Olympia
22 October 2011 Berlin Germany Tempodrom
North America
29 October 2011 Philadelphia United States World Cafe 20th Anniversary
2 November 2011 New York City Howard Gilman Opera House
4 November 2011 Chicago Riviera Theater
6 November 2011 Atlanta The Tabernacle
8 November 2011 Dallas Majestic Theatre
12 November 2011 Los Angeles The Wiltern
14 November 2011 San Francisco The Warfield
16 November 2011 Portland, Oregon Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
17 November 2011 Seattle The Moore Theater
18 November 2011 Vancouver Canada The Centre In Vancouver For Performing Arts
20 November 2011 Edmonton Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
21 November 2011 Calgary Jack Singer Concert Hall
1 December 2011 Toronto Massey Hall
3 December 2011 Montreal Métropolis
5 December 2011 Ottawa National Arts Centre
6 December 2011 Quebec City Grand Théâtre de Québec
12 December 2011 Mexico City Mexico Teatro Fru Fru
13 December 2011
15 December 2011
16 December 2011
Oceania
28 January 2012 Brisbane Australia Laneway Festival
30 January 2012 Auckland
1 February 2012 Melbourne Palais Theatre
4 February 2012 Laneway Festival
5 February 2012 Sydney
7 February 2012 Enmore Theatre
9 February 2012 Adelaide Thebarton Theatre
11 February 2012 Perth Laneway Festival
Asia
12 February 2012 Singapore Laneway Festival
15 February 2012 Jakarta Indonesia Fairgrounds
Europe
6 March 2012 Oslo Norway Sentrum Scene
7 March 2012 Stockholm Sweden Cirkus
8 March 2012 Copenhagen Denmark Falkoner Theatre
10 March 2012 Vienna Austria Gasometer
11 March 2012 Zürich Switzerland Volkshaus
12 March 2012 Munich Germany Tonhalle
13 March 2012 Cologne E-Werk
15 March 2012 Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle
18 March 2012 Lisbon Portugal Coliseu
19 March 2012 Porto Coliseu
21 March 2012 Paris France Le Zénith
22 March 2012 Villeurbanne Transbordeur
23 March 2012 Lille Theatre Sebastopol
25 March 2012 London United Kingdom Royal Albert Hall
26 March 2012 Manchester O2 Apollo
27 March 2012 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
North America
14 April 2012 Indio United States Coachella Music Festival
21 April 2012
22 April 2012 Phoenix Orpheum Theater
23 April 2012 Tucson TCC Arena
25 April 2012 Marfa Crowley Theatre
26 April 2012 Austin Stubb's
28 April 2012 New Orleans New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
30 April 2012 Indianapolis Egyptian Room
1 May 2012 Nashville Ryman Auditorium
2 May 2012 Asheville Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
3 May 2012 Raleigh Memorial Auditorium
5 May 2012 New York Radio City Music Hall
7 May 2012 Boston House of Blues
8 May 2012 Philadelphia Academy of Music
9 May 2012 North Bethesda Strathmore
11 May 2012 Burlington, Vermont Flynn Theater
28 May 2012 George, Washington Sasquatch! Music Festival
29 May 2012 Boise, Idaho Idaho Botanical Garden
31 May 2012 Morrison, Colorado Red Rocks Amphitheatre
2 June 2012 Minneapolis Zoo Amphitheater
3 June 2012 Madison Orpheum Theatre
5 June 2012 Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Summer Festival
6 June 2012 Columbus Wexner Center
8 June 2012 Manchester, Tennessee Bonnaroo Music Festival
22 June 2012 Calgary Canada Sled Island Festival
23 June 2012 Saskatchewan Sasktel Saskatchewan Jazz Fest
4 July 2012 Winnipeg Winnipeg Folk Festival
13 July 2012 Chicago United States Pitchfork Music Festival
14 July 2012 Pittsburgh Stage AE
15 July 2012 Buffalo, New York Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor
4 August 2012 Montreal Canada Osheaga Festival
Europe
8 August 2012 Oslo Norway Oya Festival
10 August 2012 Gothenburg Sweden Way Out West Festival
12 August 2012 Helsinki Finland Flow Festival
13 August 2012 Tallinn Estonia Kadioru Castle Flower Garden
15 August 2012 Hamburg Germany Stadtpark
16 August 2012 Hasselt Belgium Pukkelpop
17 August 2012 Biddinghuizen Netherlands Lowlands
19 August 2012 Brecon Beacons United Kingdom Green Man Festival
21 August 2012 Cologne Germany Tanzbrunnen
22 August 2012 Stuttgart Freilichtbuhne Killesberg
23 August 2012 Lausanne Switzerland For Noise Festival
25 August 2012 Istanbul Turkey Istanbul Jazz Festival
North America
31 August 2012 Rouyn-Noranda Canada Festival de Musique Emergente
1 September 2012 Hamilton Greenbelt Harvest Picnic
Latin America
18 October 2012 Buenos Aires Argentina Teatro Opera
20 October 2012 Santiago Chile Teatro Caupolicán
22 October 2012 São Paulo Brazil Cine Joia
23 October 2012
24 October 2012 Rio de Janeiro Circo Voador
23 November 2012 Querétaro Mexico Indio Emergente
24 November 2012 Puebla
25 November 2012 Guadalajara

Release history
Region Date Format Label
Worldwide[50][51][52][53] September 30, 2011 Digital download Polydor
Germany[54] CD, Vinyl
France[55] October 3, 2011
United Kingdom[2] CD, Download, Vinyl
Canada[2] October 4, 2011 Arts & Crafts
United States[2] Cherrytree

References
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