Am I the only one that found Metric’s breakthrough single ‘Monster Hospital’ to be infuriatingly average, deficient of a punch-line and somewhat akin to No Doubt trying to reclaim The Clash’s iconographic ‘I Fought The Law’ for a generation that can’t dance very well? And not in any post-ironic clever-clever come-out-the-other-side-cool kind of way. I hope not. It was a shame considering much of the album from whence it came grinded by as clean as a club lit in neon and as grubby as the tacky floor underfoot. But we’re going back to the beginning here with their debut album finally receiving a full UK release courtesy of Gronland Records. And here we find a band as yet untroubled by grime, distortion and its ensuing attitude. A band that can draw clean lines and manoeuvre around stylishly between said lines. A band very much related to its current self but as yet unaware of itself.
The whole sound is very minimal, uncluttered. New wave (take Blondie) but also and possibly much more so modern disco (take Daft Punk or Royksopp). This combination manifests itself particularly in ‘Hardwire’, ‘Soft Rock Star’ and ‘On The Sly’, sounding very much like The Cardigans, owing a lot to singer Emily Haines’ icy, clipped vocals. She has a peculiar voice, in a way it’s quite emotionless, almost sexless in fact, yet simultaneously bewitching. It’s unclear what makes it exactly so, but it definitely fits, especially to this album’s tone. On the piano-led ‘White Gold’ though she pre-empts some of the tenderness that she held back for her own solo release earlier this year, also evoking soulful countrywoman and BSS-team mate Leslie Feist. It’s the album’s most beautiful but alas not definitive track. This album though has come just at the right time, delivering breadth and context posthumously to the Metric that now exists.