OLD WORLD UNDERGROUND, WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
Metric
Everloving
Records
By Robert Winterode
Beacon Journal staff writer
I'm in love with Emily Haines.
I'll admit it: I have a weak spot for rock 'n' roll frontwomen, from
the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O to Blondie's Debbie Harry and even America's
Sweetheart, Courtney Love. Say what you will.
Haines and her band are Metric -- a latter-day, much-improved version
of Elastica. And on their debut, Old World Underground, Where Are You
Now? they spin some of the best synth-pop gems with a
lurking-under-the-sheen sociopolitical message to come out of America or
Toronto (Haines' hometown) in quite a while.
It doesn't hurt that every song has a hopelessly catchy hook and that
the two dancey singles on the LP (Combat Baby and Succexy)
are pure Top 40 fodder -- that is, if this current vogue of indie rock
continues to gain play on national radio stations.
Let's quickly get some things out of the way before a discussion of the
group's merits: Metric -- as its name might connote -- is rather
world-(read: non-U.S.-)centric. It is covertly anti-Bush, anti-war and
anti-Kmart red tag sales. Here's a sample lyric from Succexy, where
they portray Iraq as the newest reality show craze televised for our
benefit on the national airwaves: ``All we do is talk, sit, switch
screens/ As the homeland plans enemies.'' You get the picture.
Still other songs critique clubbing (Hustle Rose), materialism
as the opiate of the masses (On a Slow Night), the distance of
people from one another in today's world (Calculation Theme), fads
(Dead Disco) and our culture's love affair with social status
(The List).
The latter contains the sardonic lyrical snippets: ``We've seen some
success/ It looks like a Camaro'' and ``The blond doll's smiling behind
us, says one day, `You'll be just like us.' ''
Even Metric at its most saccharine, Combat Baby, has a decidedly
dogmatic tone as Haines is lamenting (or rejoicing in) the loss of her
significant other to the ongoing conflict (``Fight off the lethargy/ Don't
go quietly'').
And while one might think the avalanche of rhetoric -- albeit rhetoric
carefully placed alongside a mock sneer -- might weigh down the release,
because of the frothy kick of each song, every song shimmies to the same
hypnotic and catchy rhythm.
It's dance-pop for the thinking person. Not one of the 10 tracks lets
up. With a snappy backbeat and Haines' sometimes snarky, sometimes
honey-rich vocals, it's the stuff of revolutions.
Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? might arguably be the
best release of the millennium yet.
