One of my favorite bands to do shots with returns with its fourth full-length,
Fantasies on April 14. That's right, I've done shots with Metric. A couple of times. And I know that lead singer and synth player Emily Haines would give me one of those icy-as-Nico-without-her-stash stares if I didn't give you the truth on what I think about her new record. One of her most endearing qualities is she's not one for those who blow smoke up her ass. She likes straight talk and no bullshit. Tequila too.
Metric has been one of those bands that always aimed for stardom. It was ingrained in its musical DNA early on with Haines and guitarist Jimmy Shaw once Brooklyn roommates with the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Nick Zinner and Torquil Campbell of Stars. They also happen to be part of the groundbreaking Canadian collective Broken Social Scene, which won awards and sold out shows everywhere since the early-2000s, launching the career of its biggest member, Feist, amongst many others. For Metric, the push for greatness wasn't something to hope for, it was expected.
Haines once told me during an interview she'd love to play bigger venues after opening for the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden. Slowly, the group got bigger and bigger, and it seemed like Metric could achieve its ambitions with a killer follow-up to 2005’s well-received
Live It Out. The band was selling out club shows and playing festivals in America and UK while playing larger theatre gigs in Canada. The pinnacle of Metric's power came with two self-curated festival shows – in hometown Toronto and Montreal - called Dog Day Afternoon. To many that attended, the band appeared unstoppable.
Then something funny happened. Instead of a smash follow-up to
Live It Out, we got two solo discs (
Knives Don't Have Your Back LP and
What Is Free To A Good Home? EP) from Haines and the debut from Bang Lime, the side-piece of bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key. There was also the release of
Grow Up and Blow Away, an album written before the breakout 2003 record, and way more excellent,
Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?There was a reason
Grow Up… didn't see the light of day in the late-90s. The album came to fruition when Metric was simply a duo, consisting of Haines and Shaw accompanied by a drum machine. It still feels under-produced and is largely devoid of the contagious, rock-star rush of later albums. Instead, when it was released in 2007, it reeked of being a stopgap while the group took extended time to write, record and step out of the spotlight it had once craved so much.
Between the release of
Live It Out and the band's disappearance in 2008, there were moments when it was apparent members of the quartet were unsure what to do with their newfound stardom, almost to the point of pushing it away. While the group often welcomed the accolades for its music and live show, it sometimes lashed out at its ever-decreasing anonymity. Check out the story I wrote for Halifax’s alt-weekly,
The Coast to get a clearer picture.
The first time Metric played Halifax, a year after the release of
Live It Out, the musicians were thrilled to finally have substantial audiences listening to their music. They seemed invigorated and ready for anything. Hanging out with three of the band members post-show at my favorite bar, Shaw and a newly-wed Scott-Key were almost hyper by the payoff for their hard work. Understandably so, as they just played to a packed venue in front of couple thousand fans. See
my review on the show.
Even then, after a huge concert, they remained relatively under-the-radar, few people recognizing them at the bar as we danced and drank the night away. They were about to embark on several more months of shows, a grinding tour schedule that had to be extremely hard on the body and mind, especially with the group's love of hard-living, late nights, and post-show parties. When I ran into Haines before a show in Austin, Texas in April 2006, she appeared hungover, most likely due to a supposed dance-party on the bus the night before. One could only ponder how long it took before this kind of lifestyle took its toll.
When the band visited Halifax for the second time in under a year to promote
Grow Up And Blow Away, this time to an even bigger audience, they looked exhausted, anxious, and a little overwhelmed by the public adulation. One example? Normally nice bassist Josh Winstead freaked out when I brushed his jacket, in all seriousness, telling me not to touch him. It was an awkward moment, maybe a sign of an overworked band or an overdrunk reporter. In all fairness, I think it was a little of both.
(Photo by Brad Fraser)While fans took it easy on the band the first time around, everyone at the (same) bar knew who they were after an even bigger show, and the Metric members hid out at a corner table most of the night. Shaw and Scott-Key were just as cool as the first time around – affable fellows who still bought the shots and insisted on getting me tipsy. Whereas I had the opportunity to talk with the band before, even dancing and discussing life ambitions with a less-guarded, and less-hounded Haines (who provided me a few
Almost Famous moments to stay between her and I), fans who had just seen them play, and who had probably never seen a real-life rock star, wouldn't leave the group alone.
Metric performed little in 2008, perhaps to catch its collective breath as well as record the long-awaited
Fantasies, released three-and-a-half years after
Live It Out. Finally, it's here, available for preview on
MySpace and out in stores on April 14. The band also has multiple sales pitches and formats to buy the physical record on the website.
Fantasies captures a tentative, post-
Live It Out Metric. It shoots for the rafters, even making it's ambitions known on the not-so-subtle tracks "Stadium Love" and "Front Row." The production rises up to the challenge, with layered, self-assured professionalism. Only the songs refuse to match that level.
Metric is being too measured on
Fantasies, too often scared to give into its rock star ambitions. The ten songs here aren’t overarching in sentiment or sound like arena fillers Coldplay or U2 (not necessarily a bad thing). They are mostly subdued with few exceptions, too cautious to tap into that feeling Metric had on its way to being huge. The first clue is the album cover, a light-bulb shrouded by darkness, cold and distant where
Old World Underground... and
Live It Out featured vibrant neon colors and cooler-than-thou visuals.
There's little political and societal commentary this time around, a high point from previous outings. Haines' lyrics mostly analyze the successes and pitfalls of the rock star dream, which seemed to slowly take is toll over the last three years. Sadly, like the best Metric single "Dead Disco?" declared, it "has been done."
That reluctance – or is it insecurity? – is all over first single "Help, I'm Alive." "
I tremble/They're gonna eat me alive/If I stumble/They're gonna eat me alive," Haines reveals over dark beats, the sound recalling Interpol with a better singer and more keyboards. "Dead Disco" it ain't. "
Help, I'm alive/My heart keeps beating like a hammer/Hard to be soft/tough to be tender." It's an accurate portrayal of a rising star facing pressure to be bigger and better than ever.
All too often Metric falls into self-reflection and it makes for lazy songs. If the piano replaced synths, there'd be no mistaking "Twilight Galaxy" or "Collect Call" from anything on Haines' solo material. "Gold Gun Girls," is a less-pretty sister to Live It Out's "Poster of a Girl," without the synth-line hook that made the previous so catchy.
"Gimme Sympathy" is the saving grace on
Fantasies, a single as good as any Metric has released and seemingly evoking the days when the four members of the band wanted to be the biggest thing in the world. Haines poses the question: "
Who would you rather be?/The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" We almost wish the band would settle for being The Killers.
There's no doubt this is Metric's most personal record. Maybe the group is trying to separate themselves from the other indie-electro bands out there or let go of some personal baggage. In doing so, the band is ignoring what made it great in the first place: pulse-pounding, ass-shaking, synth-rock with a message.
Frustratingly,
Fantasies might just be what it advertises itself as. Metric may be pleased making decent records without fully embracing stardom, leaving dreams of massive, sold-out audiences in the dust. In putting out this type of album so long after new material, four of the best musicians to hang-out with may have given up the a spot at the next level in favor of retaining some semblance of professional and personal space. To Haines and company, that might be more than enough. Fans who expected more might not be so understanding.
Johnston Farrow
After nearly a year hiatus from behind the decks to seek out gainful employment in a new country, I return to my favorite hobby as DJ Acrylic. I can hear my friends back in Canada ask, "Why the name change?" I came to the decision since no one knows me in San Antonio. In Halifax, everyone knew me from The Coast first, DJing second, so it was a matter of keeping the name going forward. In S.A., no one really knows me either way, so I thought it was as great opportunity to come up with something different.
