Adopting The Metric System

For a while now, my friend Dante has been raving about the Canadian band, Metric. A diverse individual, Dante has put me on such bands as Bloc Party and Postal Service, long before they were household names. But with Metric, I just wasn’t feeling it. The early albums seemed a little too dark. Too much brooding. That was until Fantasies. This album makes me a believer.

To create a much “lighter” album, lead singer Emily Haines, spent some time in South America to get away from the US indie rock scene and find inspiration for the band’s fourth album. Eu Gusto!

Now I normally have trouble with chick lead singers due to my insecurities about singing along to female vocals but this album is not your little sister’s pop-rock outfit. It rocks! And while some critics have referred to Metric’s sound as “teen angst meets something from a final fantasy game”, I can assure you this is a claim made my casual listeners who have not explored the full depth of the album. “Stadium Love”, for example, stands out as a 21st century anthem about society’s obsession with stadium-like competition. The song suggests we “throw everyone in the ring” to duke it out once and for all. If music is a competitive sport, Metric has emerged as a legitimate contender in the indie-rock arena.