Metric - Live It Out

How's the live show?

joseph, the amoral adultress angle is interesting, but I think you're projecting too much credit on their songwriting (though I admit that analyzing Metric's lyrics was not an instant reflex on my part).

I think the only reason they're being mentioned in the same breath as BSS is because their CDs came out at the same time. Two very different albums, but for what it's worth, Metric's is superior.

so far i like the first record a lot more than the second.

"When the underground you once romanticized has given way to pre-fab Rebellion™, grab a shovel and start digging your own subterranean sanctuary. But spend enough time down and out of sight and you start feeling the need to come up for air. And when Metric did just that after a year of ceaseless, club-by-club conversions, they were confronted with a strangely beautiful sight: a crowd of people looking right back at them. The very fashionistas and consumerists they slyly satirized in songs like "Dead Disco," "Combat Baby" and "The List" were singing along with them. And it felt good."

That said, I now have two clear favorite songs on the record: "Glass Ceiling" and "Too Little Too Late."

Any comparisons to BSS are so far off the mark that I can't even summon the energy to argue about it. The aesthetics of the two bands are so different that you'd have to be deaf to confuse the two. Not to mention that BSS put on one of the best live shows I've seen in a while. The first time I saw them, at Mercury Lounge in NYC right after YFIIP came out, I was SOLD! Plus I'm crushed out on Leslie Feist, so whatevs...

i'm totally into this metric mix from a friend. sounds great!

There was a time a couple years ago that I couldn't stop listening to "Wet Blanket."

Okay, I skipped Live it Out because I worked at HMV when Old World Underground came out, and even though I really liked it, work-related repetition eventually put me off hearing anymore from this band for a while.

So it's been like five years, revisiting them now, realising I still like a lot of Old World Underground enough that I'll probably give their new album a listen sometime this week.

Has anyone heard it? Does anyone care?

Live it Out and Fantasies are the only two I really like, even though they're not that different from Old World Underground in the grand scheme of things. I just think the songs have gotten better.

Never really got into them before particularly, but damn, the first few tracks on the new album are good.

i like "sick muse"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEz8N8AT-yo

rest of the album's ok, a few really catchy tunes. funny how these guys are getting some mini-boom of media interest now. i didn't even know they were still around.

(and i realize this thread is for live it out, but i wasn't interested enough to start a whole thread for the new album)

Yeah the new album is pretty good most of the way through, but really great at the beginning. I can't really think of anything to say about it though.

i know. it seems like one of those pretty-good '90s alt-rock albums that i might have picked up for a buck or two in a used bin the year after it had its mtv run.

I wonder why every shitty band decides to destroy Elliot Smith's "Between The Bars." sigh

They've got a full concert free for downloading from NPR.

Some of the singles from the first album are my favorite songs of this decade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqldwoDXHKg

This is the best Oasis song ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZEU41xdgDU&NR=1

Seeing Metric live was pretty great. Seeing Emily Haines live is a nightmare. Its like VH1 Storytellers but 100 times worse.

Gimme Sympathy is a terrific song, and Haines/Metric have certainly written a few good ones over the years. Only had a quick listen to Fantasies, but seems like it's much better than Live It Out.

this band would be so much better if she just sang everything in French like the end of "poster of a girl"

"Gimme Sympathy" is the only thing that really stood out when I listened to Fantasies; I should give it another go. Favorite Metric song is still, by a long shot, "Wet Blanket."

There's a recent full concert of theirs for download on NPR's All Songs Considered.

I've only heard one other song from Fantasies once, and I had to get used to the wash versus the sharp synths of Old World Underground. Meanwhile, I'm listening to both versions of "Gimme Sympathy" over and over again. Realized that I like songs that mention other songs, but without emulating that song at all (so there's "Here Comes The Sun" mentioned in a song that doesn't sound like it at all; see also "Heavy Metal Drummer").

surprised by how much I like this lot

Listening to Synthetica for the first time tonight. This may be my favorite current pop band.

the new emily haines/soft skeleton record is wonderful

there's something about emily's words and piano playing. i can't find the right word for it - not quite mystical, ethereal... it seems to wander (the same feeling comes to mind when i listen to elliott smith). i almost feel as though i'm flying when i listen to her play. after reading her father paul's poetry (secret carnival workers) it's evident that her lyricism is intrinsic. his words bear the same inexplicable, timeless, heavenly qualities to me.

as far as production, i'm always conflicted as to whether jimmy shaw does her favours, or not. sometimes it's overcompressed (as is most metric, broken social scene, etc.), the electronics on fatal gift seem almost antithetical.

i have a terrible quality mp3 live set of her playing bottom of the hill, SF, CA in 2004. it sounds as though it was recorded nowhere, in the heavens, somewhere! there's a short delay on her vocal and you can hear the crowd chatter and drinks clinking. i wonder if she played it blindfolded, like she did for a few soft skeleton shows.

emily's made a few statements about just wanting to exist as a sound. she talks further in recent interviews about trying to evoke a feminine spirit in sound on 'choir of the mind' - a sonic spirit, or something. it resonates with me, anyway

emily's made a few statements about just wanting to exist as a sound. she talks further in recent interviews about trying to evoke a feminine spirit in sound on 'choir of the mind' - a sonic spirit, or something. it resonates with me, anyway

Fantasies is such an impeccable pop record; every song could have been a smash.

^^ Agreed

Synthetica was also great. I wasn't feeling Pagans in Vegas so much.

Surprised there's not more Metric chat on here tbh? There are a couple of new (ish) videos up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVn2UM8-sKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptSGHC2ikd0

i really, really want to like post-2006 metric but i just can't feel it. their pop used to have a real bite to it - acerbic lyricism and memorable melodies. these are forgettable as anything from the last two records. emily's last soft skeleton record was very worthwhile though.

I'd almost agree with that but "lost kitten" rules and I like whichever single from the last album sounded like synth army paramore

they were also amazing opening for sp to the point where I wanna revisit all the post-live it out records

I like the stripped-down versions of their songs that otherwise are arena-ready:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcQT8pdcEFY

Wandering around all day in a depressed fug, barely sustained by “Satellite Mind” rattling around in my skull.

stunning lyricism on the first few metric records, no doubt in emily's blood from her jazz poet dad, paul haines. her first solo record is largely about him/her loss. i recommend reading 'secret carnival workers' for metric fans. haven't been fazed much by anything since live it out though :(

fear of pretty houses on their porches!
fear of biological wrist watches!
fear of comparison shopping!
until our faces all resemble dying roses
stop trying to fix it!

live it out is the best metric album imo

I always thought "Monster Hospital" was a recognized classic of this era of indie rock and the song that Metric is remembered for, but it's barely mentioned in this thread, am I just deluded about how widely beloved it is?

Their Spotify plays are highly concentrated on this 2009 album I didn't even know existed.

I like a few others, but Monster Hospital is the only Metric song I truly fuck with.

"Police and the Private" is pretty great. The rest is just a long, boring blur.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, October 19, 2005 1:47 AM bookmarkflaglink

lol still feel the same 16 years later except the standout track changed.

Their Spotify plays are highly concentrated on this 2009 album I didn't even know existed.

the song about Scarface is cool, I like that one

er Tony Montana

ohhh interesting, had no idea, will listen now

no love for 'old world underground'? ive rinsed that record for the past fifteen years yet im still not bored of it... killer synth lines.

"Live It Out" and "Monster Hospital" felt like indie disco staples when I was going to indie discos

I missed until today that Metric and Howard Shore did the soundtrack for Cronenberg's Cosmopolis. Good stuff. As we were talking about with Eurythmics' 1984 soundtrack, interesting how the vocals are mixed lower to fit in with the music instead of above it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kKu6u-PQYM