Metric, Live It Out
Canadian quartet falls in love with their guitars all over again.
On its second full-length album, the Canadian quartet Metric ups the screeching guitars and pulls back on the synthesizers. The overall effect is the same as it ever was — updated, politically charged new wave with smarts and a mathematical precision that comes from Wire by way of Elastica.
In “Monster Hospital,” about halfway through the album, singer Emily Haines bites a Bobby Fuller line, screaming, “I fought the war, but the war won," over slashing guitars and an irresistible beat. In “Glass Ceiling,” over even more controlled drumming and angular riffage, she wails against political apathy. Her synth is back at the fore in “The Police and the Private,” squiggling out the kind of atmospheric curlicues more commonly found on the band's debut, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Perhaps because of its louder guitars and bubblier melodies, Live it Out has been criticized in some quarters for its departure from indie-prescribed notions of experimental. “But as poppy as the song structures and chops are, the music — unconventional melodic twists and turns, and subtle instrumental and vocal punctuation in just the right places — remains as adventurous in its own way as Haines 'other creative outlet, Broken Social Scene. In fact, those who swooned over her hissing voice in that band's “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” will get more of it here, particularly in the Breeders-like drive of “Too Little Too Late.” Live It Out is many things, but a sophomore slump it most certainly is not.
