Leslie Feist's voice is a beautiful thing, but it is also curiously difficult to describe: by turns breezy and strong, not quite sweet yet never more than a touch husky. Unfortunately, this lack of a strongly defined identity plagues her new effort Metals, the follow-up to 2007's deservedly successful The Reminder.

That being said, the album starts off well; the multi-layered vocal hook of "bring 'em all back to life" in 'Graveyard' brings the song to a confidently stunning climax, whilst the weighty percussion and brass on opener 'The Bad in Each Other' add just enough raw edge to Feist's description of a pair of sadly unsuited lovers. The earthy tone established by the instrumentation here is a common thread throughout the album, which moves away from her previous record's flirtation with more pop-oriented production.

It is this stripping back of Feist's sound that too often renders the record a bit like a meandering stream, a pleasant background feature that does little to pull the listener's attention along with it. Indeed, cuts like 'Bittersweet Melodies' and 'The Circle Married the Line,' seem engineered to produce an emotional response, but the way in which they drift along fails to resonate. The same can also be said for 'A Commotion,' which, with its yelp of gang vocals, ironically fails to produce the excitement promised.

The album can find beauty in subtlety, though; 'Anti-Pioneer' is a touching lament and a showcase for Feist's still considerable writing skill as she sighs wistfully, 'When the month changes numbers / It's time to go home' over a sparse backing. Even more successful is the bare bones folk of 'Cicadas and Gulls,' proving that sometimes all Feist needs to enthrall is her voice and a simple acoustic melody. At moments like these the album strikes to the core its title references, but taken as a whole Metals never penetrates too far beyond the surface.