Metric - Fantasies

It's been four long years in the making, but Metric have finally completed their follow-up to 2005's Live It Out, entitled Fantasies, and due for release on April 14th. Although some time has passed, Metric picks up right where they left off, with another white-hot collection of tracks that combine their catchy pop melodies with their dirty-synth sensibilities. Acoustic guitars shockingly mesh well with dark electro beats on lead single, "Help I'm Alive," as singer Emily Haines pleads with the listener: "I tremble / They're going to eat me alive." Next, soaring riffs light up the otherwise one-dimensional tracks, "Sick Muse" and "Satellite Mind." It's not until halfway through Fantasies where the rapidfire drums and interweaving guitars of "Gold Guns Girls" really shows what Metric have been up to for the past four years. This is the ouvertly sexual Emily Haines that fans know and love, and definitely one of the standout tracks on the album. Several tracks later, and Fantasies ends with one of its other standouts, the dancey-as-fuck "Stadium Love." It may not be their best effort to date, but Fantasies does prove that Metric are still capable of writing fun pop songs, even if they choose not to mature much beyond that musical direction.

DOWNLOAD: Metric - Fantasies [Arts & Crafts]
Recommended Tracks: "Help I'm Alive," "Gold Guns Girls," "Front Row," "Stadium Love."