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I had the honor of introducing Feist at the Polaris Music Prize gala on Sept. 24 at Toronto's historic Masonic Temple. She won the prize, after performing "Caught a Long Wind" and "The Bad in Each Other." I was pleased, as Metals is an extraordinary album and had been my number one pick all along. Here's what I said in my introduction: After the runaway success of The Reminder, Feist needed a clean slate. She found it in Big Sur, a place of stunning vistas and quiet reflection. Working there with longtime partners Mocky and Chilly Gonzales, she discovered a new range of expression and forged an album of rare depth and beauty. Feist found inspiration in the elements and cast them into alloys ...

Feist’s transformation from indie-pop darling to household name was as simple as “1234.” The song became a runaway hit after being featured in a commercial for Apple’s iPod Nano. Its album, The Reminder, sold a million copies and Feist was soon touring the world and appearing on Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street, where she taught Muppets to count along to the numerically-themed song. Born to artist parents in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Leslie Feist played in a Calgary punk-rock band before moving to Toronto and joining the art-rock collective Broken Social Scene. Feist’s solo career soared with the romantic, French cafe vibe of Let It Die. Its followup, The Reminder, recorded outside Paris, e...

Feist is Leslie Feist, a mesmerizing singer from Calgary who has graced CDs by Toronto bands Broken Social Scene and By Divine Right. She’s destined for stardom. Like expats Peaches and Chilly Gonzales, Feist has a base in Europe, where she recorded this captivating collection of songs with Manu Chao producer Renaud Létang. From the samba swing of “Gatekeeper” and the disco-ish “Inside and Out” to the Bacharach-like “One Evening” and the irresistible “Mushaboom,” it’s thrilling and absolutely addictive.

Feist is sitting in a Latin American café in Toronto’s west end, sipping mint tea and talking enthusiastically about ocean waves. She’s just returned from a rare week off in Mexico, where she holidayed with buddies Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, of Norwegian folk-pop duo Kings of Convenience. “My friends were telling me to watch out for the riptide, because it’ll pull you out,” Feist recalls. “But all you have to do is just go with it and it’ll pull you back to shore. You just have to go the full cycle. People don’t have faith in that. They don’t realize it’s all about flow and cycles and currents.” She adds: “I’ve been thinking a lot about that stuff lately, about movement and the natura...

Toronto’s Music Gallery is housed in St. George the Martyr Church, on the edge of a park and a stone’s throw from Queen Street West. The tiny building, with its stained-glass windows and excellent acoustics, served as a fitting launch pad last March for Feist’s latest album, The Reminder. There, on an unseasonably mild evening, 200 invited guests sat on pews and waited for the Canadian artist’s arrival. As the lights dimmed, the anticipation was palpable. “Thanks for helping us kick off the training wheels,” said Feist, before she and her band performed 11 compositions from the album. The hour-long set served immediate notice that an important new songwriter had arrived. Of course, Feist was...