METRIC — “FANTASIES”

METRIC — “FANTASIES”

It has taken Emily Haines and Metric almost four years to follow-up their previous album with Fantasies. Our wait has been rewarded with one of the most hook-filled and hummable rock albums of the year. Nearly every song has multiple hooklines, whether deployed by guitar, synths, voice, or even drumbeats. Opener “Help I’m Alive” is an indie ballad with an off-kilter snare beat that employs a chugging 60s riff (“Sweet Jane”?) in the middle eight. “Sick Muse” has Haines focusing on the trials of love (“Watch out cupid/Stuck me with a sickness/Pull your arrows out/Let me live my life”) while the drums tap out a straightforward beat that plays off multiple guitar and synth hooks and a killer chorus. “Satellite Mind” uses heavy guitars and synths to propel its uptempo catchiness, while “Twilight Galaxy” slows thing down with yet another great melody. “Gimme Sympathy” draws on numerous sixties references (“Gimme sympathy/After all of this is gone/Who would you rather be/The Beatles or the Rolling Stones…Come on baby play me something like/Here Comes The Sun”) in devising its refrains, while “Gold Guns Girls” is a driving yet hushed smoker. There is nothing even close to a duff song on this album, as the band has seemingly poured their all into making sure there are no more than a few measures rest between each hook or musical grabber. There is also nothing radically new or different going on here, just an album that presents one melodically superb tune after another, each with a slightly different edge or approach. That’s more than enough given the songwriting talent on display throughout Fantasies.

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