Feist is stopping by Northampton’s Calvin Theater on Wednesday continuing her solo “Mettle Tour.” Feist, a Canadian indie musician who often defies categorization, will be promoting her most recent album, 2011’s “Metals.” The show comes two years after the release of her documentary, “Look at What the Light Did Now.”
Feist has been active in music since the early 1990s, but did not embark on a solo career until 1999, when she released her debut album, “Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down).” The album got little attention and is now out of circulation. Her second solo album, 2004’s “Let It Die,” received far more attention and helped expand her audience.
In addition to her solo career, Feist has been a lead member of the Canadian indie band Broken Social Scene. The band is a sprawling ensemble, a conglomeration of many individual acts like Feist molded into one. Feist adopted the band’s experimentations with horns and strings on her latter two albums, 2007’s “The Reminder” and 2011’s “Metals.”
“The Reminder” made her known to American audiences and placed on many “best of” lists at the end of 2007. It produced such hits as the spare sing-along “1234” and the keyboard-charged “I Feel It All.” “1234” was known for its popularity thanks to its usage in Apple’s ad campaign for the iPod Nano.
“Metals” marked both a critical and commercial breakthrough for Feist. The album received an outstanding score of 81 on Metacritic and placed 18th on Rolling Stone’s list of Best Albums of 2011.
The heavily lauded effort also won the Canadian the Polaris Prize in 2012. In this competition, she beat out Drake’s massively popular sophomore album, “Take Care,” for album of the year honors.
In 2012, she won five JUNO Awards, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, outpacing the likes of Drake, Michael Bublé, Deadmau5, and City & Colour. That same year, on top of all that, Feist was also nominated for 4 Grammys.
The lyrics on “Metals” deal heavily with romantic upheaval, especially the opener, “The Bad in Each Other.” This track showcases her gorgeous, fragile vocals coupled with a menacing opening riff that could double as an opening theme for a gritty detective show.
The title of the album, one ambiguous word, conveys a sense of weight, according to Feist. This weight could be either mental or physical. She described her writing process as “‘leaking blood from a stone’” in a 2011 Huffington Post interview. Emotional heft bleeds through on nearly every song.
Feist has also long been involved with many political and social causes, categorized into three umbrellas on her website: the environment, people and animals. She advocates for more environmental awareness and reserves portions of proceeds to charities within these three domains. She often uses her Facebook page for outreach to fans about these causes.
The Calvin will host Feist Wednesday, April 9 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. Her former band mate Kevin Drew, of Broken Social Scene is slated to open for her. Tickets range from $25-$45 and are available online at Northampton Box Office’s website, nbotickets.com.
Alex Frail can be reached at [email protected].
