When the song “1234” was released, it was sung as a counting game on Sesame Street and used in iPod commercials and not many people knew about Leslie Feist. With a single as catchy as that, you didn’t even bother to ask—you probably just turned up the volume and sang along.

Such was the inflationary phenomena of “1234” that it seemed to take on a life of its own; some critics thought the single obscured the rest of the album, The Reminder, which was chock-full of strummed ballads, jazzy slow-dances and baroque pop, memorable from start to finish. Five years later, Feist’s musical career still stands in the single’s long shadow.

Before all that, Feist was better recognized as a member of the Canadian indie outfit Broken Social Scene. After years of performing with the group, her first solo release, Let It Die, showcases her vocals with a long overdue clarity.

The album sounds like a hushed night in Paris and goes down nice with a glass of wine. You hear her voice up-front; you recognize the antiquity, the distinctive knack for melody on songs like “Mushaboom.” It was labeled Feist’s French-pop album and seemed quite different from anything she ever did with Broken Social Scene. It was undeniable that she had a solo career on her hands.

Though parting from Broken Social Scene was on friendly terms (she still makes occasional appearances with them on tour), it’s unclear if the same can be said for Feist’s more recent departure from the sing-songy, sun-shiny ecstasy of her erstwhile hit “1234.” For better or worse, her new album Metals seems to purposefully shirk any pop-songs that might faintly call it to mind.

Even if Metals does not carry the same overt catchiness of The Reminder, even if does not feature one go-to hit, the album is amazingly satisfying—perhaps the most satisfying of her albums to date. Recorded at a seaside studio in Big Sur, Calif., Metals finds its sonic habitation in a natural world where dynamics rise and fall like coastal tides, at times building towards bombastic string-backed choruses then sloping back to volumes so low only spare chimes of percussion are left shimmering on the track.

The first track, “The Bad in Each Other,” is about as epic as Metals gets. A rollicking pirate-ship mix of stomp-clamp patterns, lilting guitars and droning brass races towards a clearly articulated chorus. “Commotion” builds in much the same way, pounding along steadily towards thunderous chants as Feist sets the scene for a climax, “It blocked out the sun/ It climbed up the stairs/ And then it slipped through the cracks.”

The mood reflected on tracks like “Anti-Pioneer” and “Bittersweet Melodies” is notably downcast, reminiscent of The Reminder’s closer, “How My Heart Behaves.” While many will enjoy those heavy-hearted moments, some listeners might find Metals sulking too long without ever straying into brighter territory, too insular and moody to be listened to over and over again.

Well situated at the midway point of Metals, “The Circle Married The Line” serves to rouse listeners from any such grogginess. Though it’s obvious Feist avoids any songs that risk the chance of being played on mainstream radio, she seems well aware that a little charm can do a lot of good even without sounding out of place. The song still falls well within the conceptual framework of Metals: emphasis put on the low-key arrangement, stripped and left beautifully untouched by the sheen of gilded production.

If there’s one lyric on Metals that summarizes the approach taken by Feist and her producers Mocky and Gonzales it’s this one: “It’s as much what it is as what it is not”—perhaps a maxim, perhaps a cliché. Regardless, it is in large part this approach that makes Metals so whole and satisfying. It seems especially true by the time you make it to the latter part of the album. The folksy “Cicadas and Gulls” features little more than a plucked guitar and beautiful vocal harmonies. “Undiscovered First” and “Comfort Me” lurch to the rhythms of bass and snare drum while the beautifully hypnotic album closer “Get it Wrong, Get it Right” features handclaps mingled with the jangles of tambourine.

Nothing will jump out at you on this album, but it will certainly creep in like an ocean tide. I give this album four out of five stars.