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Metric
debut measures up quite well
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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.
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