CheekyChicago

Metric is the sort of band which could be described as this: you don’t know where they came from (turns out, Canada), but you wonder how you ever got along without them. They are two parts Blondie and one part The Killers – and they’re pretty damn good. I previously included the band in my last A-List column (and if you were at Lolla, I hope you went to see them).

The more I listen to their fourth album, 2009’s Fantasies, the more I love it (well, most of it). Opener “Help I’m Alive” plays out the same verses over digitized drums and electric guitar, but it’s rather catchy instead of being repetitively annoying. The second track, “Sick Muse,” relies on its slick guitar riff to carry the song (played expertly by James Shaw), and frontwoman Emily Haines’ sensual, confident vocals.

Haines seems to be at her best when she’s heading the pop-rock anthems that permeate this album (two of the best songs are “Gold Guns Girls” and “Satellite Mind”), but she loses momentum when it comes to the slower, dreamy songs (“Twilight Galaxy” or “Collect Call”). In fact, I would say that the last quarter of the album affects the band on the whole – but maybe this is because I had gone so long on a dizzying electro-pop course in the beginning that I wanted (and was expecting) more.

Unfortunately, if you missed their Lollapalooza performance, they won’t be back in town for a while – but that doesn’t mean they’re not around. Check out the Twilight: Eclipse and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtracks to hear previously unreleased songs.