There aren't enough words in my incredibly limited vocabularly to express how much I love Metric. If the word "awesome" had a kid brother who sniffed coke, robbed dry cleaning places, and ran a phone sex operation with his aunt Meredith, I don't even think that word would be enough to describe how much I love this fucking band.
I discovered the band about a year ago after asking some random people for music recommendations. I was working a boring summer desk job, and I needed some new music to keep me upbeat and prevent me from going completely fucking insane. So someone offered me Metric's most recent album at the time, Live It Out. I dug the album initially, but after several more listens, I found myself adoring it. That crunchy, sparkly indie rock vibe. Emily Haines's gorgeous, serene vocals. It was all good.
After declaring my fondness for Live It Out, I began digging deeper into the Metric discography to find what other gems this band had unleashed upon the world. I literally worked my way backwards, delving into their sophomore record Old World Underground, Where Are You ? The album has a more raw indie rock vibe than Live It Out, but features some incredible songs like the politically tinged "Succexxy" and the hyperkinetic "Dead Disco".
So then I get to their actual debut album, Grow Up and Blow Away, which is drastically different from the other two records. Built on drum machine loops, and possessing a jazz/R&B sonic bent, the album floored me. Haines's voice is angelic all throughout the record. The songs just bounce with such a subtle hipness. And then there was the song "White Gold". I can't think of a song that touches me more emotionally than that song. The opening somber piano line takes me to so many places everytime I hear it. It's like a Thomas Kincade painting interpreted with piano chords.
God, I fucking love that song.
So, with that being said, you can bet my anticipation for the new record was high. And, simply put, the album doesn't disappoint.
Picking up where Live It Out left off, Fantasies is yet another thrilling blend of poetic, razor sharp lyricism and fizzy, danceable indie rock jams. Opener "Help, I'm Alive" features thundering drums, and Haines's effected voice throwing out multi-pronged lines like "Hard to be soft, tough to be tender" and paranoid thoughts such as "If I stumble, they're going to eat me alive/Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer?"
Other major highlights include the catchy-as-fuck "Gold Guns Girls", a rumination on materialism, "Gimme Sympathy", an anthemic number dripped in Beatles and Rolling Stones references, and "Front Row", a borderline fist-clenching deconstruction of rock stars.
The album seems slightly less synth driven than previous Metric records, relying more on the strong guitar work of James Shaw, and the solid bass and drum work of Joules-Scott Key and Josh Winstead.
Metric's songs have always balanced hookiness, melodicism, and poignancy with such grace, and Fantasies does nothing to deter that notion. It doesn't break any new ground, and it really isn't that different from their previous two records (which some may see as a negative).
But for this Metric nut, Fantasies delivers exactly what I wanted and desperately needed: another outstanding slice of beautifully constructed indie rock.
GRADE: A-
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