When folk singer Marlee MacLeod was very young, she heard the song lyric “he had her picture hanging in his heart” and it got her thinking.

“How could that be possible?” McLeod recited from her home in Minneapolis, Min. “I was too young to know it was a metaphor.”

Now, over two decades later, McLeod is an expert on metaphors. She has written and recorded three albums and has explored virtually every tool of the English language.

Take “Vertigo,” the title track to her latest record, for instance. The song is built around a “bouncy guitar sound” and has peppy pop tune written all over it.

But when the song is stripped down to its lyrics, the message is far from peppy. “It’s about not getting it,” McLeod explained. “As in not understanding how the world works.”

McLeod tunes often follow the same path: bright and quirky, but with a dark side creeping in.

“All my work tends to be weird — because I am a little weird,” McLeod said. “It must be the dark southern gothic in me — but also having an English teacher in me.”

McLeod, who studied English in Tuscaloosa, Ala., is commonly recognized for her rather cynical look on relationships. She was once told that “if Flannery O’Conner were alive today, she’d listen to you.”

“I sort of fell into a style of writing that was safe,” she said. “I’ve always had this humorous, cynical attitude against the world. But I got brave all of the sudden.”

So McLeod challenged herself on “Vertigo” and began writing love songs, which resulted in “Like I Know What I’m Doing” and “Can I Stay?”

She also explored other topics, such as her van (“Econoline”) and spies (“Mata Hari Dress”). “Beautiful,” the song McLeod describes as the strangest on “Vertigo,” takes on a completely different theme.

“Lyrically, it’s a salute to being who you are — no matter what,” McLeod said. “Musically, it’s a piano-driven, ballady, cheesy drumming song.”

Although MacLeod’s musical focus is on singing and song-writing, she is a trained guitar, piano and trumpet player. Her voice as been compared to everyone from Liz Phair to Courtney Love, but with a hint of Alabama-rooted twang.

MacLeod, who noted that her music has lost the strong country influence on past records, said her songs are leaning more in the pop direction. “It’s kind of the way my music is going,” she said.

As a one-time rock critic for the Athens, Ga., weekly Flagpole Magazine, MacLeod has developed a critical ear with pop music. “If I don’t like the lyrics,” she said, “I don’t give the song a chance.”

But that’s not to say lyrics are what make the song. “I have songs that I love, but I don’t know what they are about,” MacLeod said. “A lot of The Jayhawks’ songs are like that.”

MacLeod added that arrangement is very important and credited Grant Lee Buffalo as a good example.

“My favorite song in the world is ‘Holiday Inn’ by Elton John,” MacLeod said. “It’s really bombastic and really delicate at the same time.”

Although MacLeod admits to not sticking by John through his “Lion King” days, she said she is behind his most recent project — re-writing “Candle In The Wind” and singing it at Princess Diana’s funeral.

“When I first heard he was going to do it, I was kind of disgusted with the whole thing,” she said. “But I watched it and thought it was great. I was as touched as I could be.”

What is most admirable about John, MacLeod said, is how he has been able to handle the death of a close friend without breaking down.

“He’s had a rough time with good friends dying,” she said. “It started with John Lennon and this year it was Gianni Versace and now Princess Di. I don’t think I could handle it.”

But seriousness has never been MacLeod’s thing, and “Vertigo” is no exception.

“I don’t really write, saying to myself ‘this will be funny,’ it just comes from the way I approach life,” MacLeod said. “I really don’t like music where the performer takes himself too seriously.”

MacLeod will be performing with not-so-serious Ames band The Nadas at People’s Bar and Grill on Saturday at 9 p.m. “Vertigo” will be in stores next Tuesday and will available at the show.