Artist of the Week: Metric
Our main intent with this blog is to display how important music is in our columnists’ daily lives. We hope that by doing this, we also show how important music is, and can be, in everyone’s life.To help introduce people to new music, we’ve decided to start doing an Artist of the Week post to show an artist that one of our columnists believes other listeners would enjoy hearing. Or, if you’re completely new to listening to music, hopefully this will serve as a good way of easing you into some of the more interesting musicians and bands in the world. Enjoy!
Metric is…
Emily Haines – Vocals/Keys
James Shaw – Guitar
Joules Scott Key – Drums
Josh Winstead – Bass
1. What do they sound like?
Everything you’d want to know about Metric is here. But let me describe their sound for you: They are a 
four-piece; drummer, bassist, guitarist and vocals/keyboards. They utilize every one of their instruments. These musicians are extremely talented. They sound like you’re in a trance/dance club, but the music is bearable instead of being annoying. But the beats, like in a club, make you move. They make your chest vibrate from the way these songs bounce. You are constantly surrounded by sound. If the guitar and bass aren’t flying away, the synth or keys are flooding you with noise; melodies on top of melodies produced just by two of the musicians, as the drums keep the beat and the bassist adds that extra thump.
But that’s not the only facet of their music. The lyrics hold their own, here. It’s clear this band believes the lyrics are as important as the music, and if a band can pull that off, they’ve conquered their issues with image. So, the lyrics are good; if there’s a great guitar or piano hook going on, you can bet there’s a good lyric to sing along with it. The band is female fronted, so some songs address issues with sexism. Other songs address restlessness with life, issues with government, and some random life stories.
2. Where should I start?
Start by picking up some songs from “Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?” Some of my favorites are “IOU”, “Combat Baby”, “On a Slow Night” and “The List”. I would suggest you get the entire album and listen to it from front-to-back, but if that’s not of interest to you, definitely pick up those songs. “Old World Underground…” is their second album, so after that, I’d pick up their third album “Live It Out” or listen to “Empty” and “Poster of a Girl” from that album. Also, if you want to hear a gem of a song from Metric before they were a full lineup and it was mostly just Shaw and vocalist Emily Haines doing everything, listen to “The Twist.” It’s one of the most enjoyable, serious and pounding songs I’ve heard.
3. Got some samples?
Here you are:
There you go! Hope you enjoyed this week’s Artist of the Week! If you didn’t, let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure to yell at you for not enjoying good music! See you next week!
Source for the first Metric photo, here. Second pic’s source is here.
