Albums : Metric : Synthetica
Albums : Metric : Synthetica
Listen To Metric : Synthetica
Who Is Metric?
Metric is Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw, Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott Key. An independent rock and roll band empowered by their innovative approach to the music business, Metric self-released their last album FANTASIES on five continents without the benefit of a label and earned themselves multiple radio hits around the world with songssuch as "Gimme Sympathy," "Gold Guns Girls," and "Help I'm Alive." They went on to sell over a million singles and 500,000 albums worldwide.
Fantasies earned Metric "Album of the Year" and "Band of the Year" at the Canadian Juno Awards, and the band finished 2010 with their music featured in two major Hollywood films including Scott Pilgrim vs The World and the Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The Twilight soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy Award and landed METRIC on the Academy Award nomination short list in 2011 for the theme song they co-wrote with composer Howard Shore. They have since partnered up with Howard Shore on another project: The score to David Cronenberg’s latest film Cosmopolis, composed by Shore and performed by METRIC, due out this year.
Their fifth full-length studio album Synthetica will be released on June 12, 2012. Sonicallyfuturistic yet organic, this album sounds like the culmination of all the music the band has made in their 10 years together. First single “Youth Without Youth” examines the fraying social state with a bristling energy and a driving beat. “Breathing Underwater” and “Speed the Collapse” both deliver on the classic METRIC chorus of soaring melancholy, while the lyrics for “Lost Kitten” and “Clone” call out some bad behavior and the consequences. Hard rocking title track “Synthetica” offers an epic conclusion to suspenseful album opener “Artificial Noctune.”
Synthetica Review
Canadian sweethearts Metric are the masters of change. Since their inception in 1998, the Toronto-based fourpiece has released a total of five distinct albums. On each, they masterfully toe the line between continuity and evolution, and their first four records earned them a reputation for perpetual evolution and consistently great songwriting. With their fifth release, Metric erupts onto a grandiose new plane. Thrilling and colossal, Synthetica is a pulsating collection of indie-synth anthems.
In a recent Spinner interview, frontwoman Emily Haines joked about her penchant for misery: “I’m used to everyone telling me, from as long as I can remember, ‘you know, you’re pretty dark.’ Yeah, I fucking know. I’m a heavy cat.” In the past, this tendency has manifested itself in crooning emotional laments like “Soft Rock Star” and “Combat Baby.” These songs were gloomy, to be sure, but they don’t hold a barely-flickering candle to Synthetica. On this release, Haines describes a crumbling dystopia and the musician’s continual quest for authenticity. Beneath its smooth electronic production and Haines’ sugary vocals, Synthetica is gritty, sinister, and ultimately inspiring. Metric has mastered the musician's paradox, sufficiently evolving without neglecting their roots.
The album begins with “Artificial Nocturne,” a swooning, infectious self-reflection that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Both meditative and motivating, the opener combines thrilling layers of instrumentation with painfully desperate lyrics. Surprisingly, what most listeners would guess to be a synth is actually a 60s organ played through a homemade pedal—an inventive choice that proves that Metric is willing to try just about anything. Next comes “Youth Without Youth,” an enormous track that describes a decaying society in all its grimy detail. It’s a behemoth of a song that will have you convinced that Haines is a Muse fan. Synthetica continues its rather apocalyptic themes with “Speed the Collapse,” another cynical account of societal collapse that blends girlish 60s backup vocals with pure, unabashed bombast.
With the fourth song, Synthetica moves from rebellion to introspection. On “Breathing Underwater,” Emily Haines deals with issues of mortality and purpose, begging us to answer her desperate question: “Is this my life? Am I breathing underwater?” The self-criticism extends through “Dreams So Real”—a short and heart-wrenching tale of regret—and “Lost Kitten”—a whimsical tune that balances sugary rhythmic clapping with dark, troubling lyrics. (Read More)
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