Rob Schnapf, a producer for Elliott Smith who mixed “Wanderer” and engineered some recording sessions, said that Ms. Marshall knew “she did not want to make a big record — she absolutely did not.” He recalled moments of inspiration in the studio where the spirit would hit her: “Her eyes would roll back and she’d just channel and go,” he said. “You can’t make that happen. Either you’ve got the genie in the bottle, or you’ve just got the bottle.”

But Matador rejected the album.

“They said, do it again, do it over,” Ms. Marshall explained. (Mr. Slater confirmed that Matador told him “Wanderer” was “not good enough, not strong enough to put out.” The album will be released by Domino.)

Ms. Marshall said she’d received the same mandate from Matador during recording as she had for “Sun,” her previous album from 2012. “It was like, ‘We need hits!’” she said. “And I did it — I got Top 10. I did the best I could to give them hits” on “Sun,” using bright synths and more modern sounds. (“Sun” has sold 114,000 albums to date including streams, according to Nielsen.)

But to Ms. Marshall, the label had always represented artistic freedom. “Looking back, I know they were using me,” she said, recalling a Matador executive playing her an album by Adele and telling her that that was how a record was supposed to sound. “I understood that I was a product,” she said, “and I always thought I was a person.”

Matador said in a statement: “Chan Marshall is without question one of the most talented, brilliant artists we’ve been fortunate to know,” adding: “Our working relationship with Chan has not been without difficult moments. We’ve had disagreements over matters both artistic and business, but none of that changes our respect for her as a person or performer.”

Ms. Marshall said she did not alter the music after the label change, but did add a track: “Woman,” featuring Lana Del Rey, which in many ways became the defiant, upbeat centerpiece of an understated album, beginning with a folky, pointed lament:

If I had a dime for every time

You tell me I’m not what you need

If I had a quarter I would pull it together

And I would take it to the bank and then leave

Asked if the track, which has received more than a million YouTube views in a month, was a middle finger to her ex-label, Ms. Marshall demurred: “Thank you for asking, but no comment.”