Metric

Metric - Fantasies

Andy Wang

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | midnight

Wow, what a seductive beginning to an album that grabs you right away and refuses to release you. On “Help, I’m Alive,” Metric’s Emily Haines is shaking, you see, and the only natural reaction is to want to save her, so she can keep singing her fantastical songs. “I tremble/They gonna eat me alive/If I stumble/They gonna eat me alive,” she sings, and then she explains the urgency of the situation and how she needs to be rescued. You had us at “I tremble,” darling. It’s unclear why Haines is in peril, but anybody who tried to figure out what “The Police and the Private” was about already knows that part of Metric’s game is creating mystery and foreboding, telling a murky tale that only they fully understand.

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Haines is known as the fiercest, coolest (sorry, Feist) female in that whole Broken Social Scene collective, but she’s also her own woman in full. Her band has new-wave chops that rival Interpol’s first album, and so many of these sultry songs (“Sick Muse,” “Front Row,” “Gimme Sympathy” and “Collect Call,” especially) have hooks to spare.  Fans who have crushes on Haines and her raw sexuality are already grumbling about how there’s too much polish on this album, but they should get over it. This band was never The Faint to begin with, and hitting No. 1 on CBS Radio and being on Grey’s Anatomy is just part of being successful. Remember, success doesn’t always repair vulnerability, and you just get the feeling that with Emily Haines, it never will.