Metric — Fantasies

Fantasies

Last Gang/Universal

Jen White (CHARTattack)

04/03/2009 2:06pm

It's been four years since Metric released Live It Out and, after battling a bout of writer's block, Emily Haines and company are back with their fourth album.

Opener and lead single "Help, I'm Alive" is one of the first tracks Haines penned for Fantasies. It's incredibly catchy and recalls the Metric of old. "Sick Muse" keeps the energy high for the indie rockers, but the album then starts to waver with the third track, "Satellite Mind." It's at this point you start to hear the Metric songwriting formula, which isn't to say the songs are bad, but they start to sound the same and blend into one another.

"Gold Guns Girls" has an extended and seemingly unnecessary jam-out, which makes the track feel longer than four minutes. Something just seems off on a few of the tracks — namely the annoying guitar riff in "Front Row" and the bigger, more rocking sound in "Stadium Love," which seems a little cheesy in its execution. (Though I bet the "oohs" in the chorus will inspire singalongs at shows.)

Second single "Gimme Sympathy" is poppier than its predecessor, but it's still a solid, dancey track with a driving beat (and an awesome video).

A lot of Fantasies tracks are on a calculated, even path, like the slow-moving "Blindness" and "Collect Call," which showcases Haines' subtle-but-strong crooning. The album's production by guitarist James Shaw (who also produced Live It Out) and Gavin Brown (Billy Talent, Three Days Grace) makes it sound really slick, but it sometimes buries Haines' unique voice just a pinch too much. Overall, it's missing the urgency that made 2003's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? so electric.

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