Metric
Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

THE REVIEW

Indie. Pop. Rock. Electronic. New wave.
This is essentially, in just six words, the content of this debut, dated 2003 and signed by Metric, a Canadian quartet characterized by a female voice that at times recalls Shirley Manson of Garbage and at times Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Some members of the band (such as singer Emily Haines) collaborated on the second work of Broken Social Scene, an excellent band that recently emerged from a vast (albeit not completely valid) indie scene. This collaboration can only encourage the listener to pay a minimum of attention to this very interesting and still unknown quartet for many.

The album sounds very diverse. "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" is an album that is not easily classified, since it contains different genres that are well integrated, making this work one of the most interesting and peculiar of recent years.
"IOU", the opening track, is a song of unclassifiable genre, with a very complex structure. A 4-minute pop-rock-electronic piece with rapid then slow then rapid again bass incursions, drums, and keyboards that give increasingly frenetic tempos to the song, which contains slow interludes and sudden changes of pace.
"Hustle Rose" is a track, perhaps the only one, that truly sounds like the Broken Social Scene of "Forgot It In People", with a pressing bass and tight drums for all 5 minutes.
"Succexy" sounds like how the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would sound after repeatedly listening to Strokes and Bloc Party, with a fairly fast and engaging rhythm.
The tracks where one can stop and relax for a while are "On A Slow Night" and "Love Is A Place", pop-rock ballads, the latter of which takes us back to the atmospheres of the last 3 tracks of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs album.
And right with the last track of the album, we find ourselves in front of the jewel, the pearl of the record. Just two minutes of spine-chilling guitar and vocals, it's a shame that for now, they are only being noticed by "Extra" on AllMusic...
But already with "The List" and "Dead Disco" we return to shaking heads and legs as in the best college-parties based on punk'n'roll, with two tracks with a decidedly lively rhythm.

It seems strange that magazines like NME, committed monthly to promoting UK and non-UK indie groups, have not minimally sponsored this band, whose value is still all to be measured and assessed but who created a decidedly good, varied, not too eager-to-please album two years ago (only "Succexy" at times gives the impression of being radio-friendly) and which has nothing to envy of many works released that year (see Audioslave, Korn, Hot Hot Heat, Athlete, Skin, and many others).

The first exam has been passed with ease, now continuity must be given to the good things done so far (even if one album is too little to judge a band) and not to exceed in declarations like "The new So-and-So", "The new Whatshisname", "Band of the year" and similar stuff.
Time will tell if it’s just a flash in the pan or a group to bet on. For now, I opt for the latter, but with these recent bands, one usually changes their mind quickly...

"...True beautiful one
What have you gone and done
I can see all your moves are new
Tell me what did that salesman do to you..."