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Reviews > CDs

CDs / Shows

Published: 2012/06/21

by Bill Murphy

Metric: Synthetica

MMI/Mom+Pop

If you’ve seen Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s buffed-chrome LA thriller Drive, then you’ve got a conceptual jump on Metric’s latest album. “A Real Hero,” which features the chillwavy vocals of Toronto-based duo Electric Youth, is the sleek center of that film’s score—and a faint reminder of the dystopian electrofuture that Metric lead singer Emily Haines portrays on Synthetica. From the tech-rocker “Youth Without Youth” to the tearful and trippy “Clone,” Haines can sound, by turns, deeply human and vaguely humanoid, her supple voice tracing a wide arc of characters that convey love, wonder, ecstasy, malaise and menace with equal weight (and at times, equal detachment). Through it all, the band—guitarist James Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key—gives her the foundation she needs, synthesizers and vocal filters at the ready, to stretch out further than ever.

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Jansen July 20, 2012, 19:19:17

Misty, sounds like I taeppd a resonant chord with you! Edge of Seventeen oh my, the memories I’m a bit older than you, so I belted my share of Joan Jett, but it was Pat Benatar who I worshipped. On my 19th birthday, my favorite band was playing at a local club and their female singer was sick that night. My best friend talked the guys into letting me sing Heartbreaker with them that night. It went so well, the band manager offered me a job! I later sang Journey covers with a local band called Sabotage for about a month. My real break came singing Juice Newton, Anne Murray, Everly Brothers and Bette Midler songs with a local guitarist at a bunch of restaurants around Cleveland’s east side. Wow, I’m taking quite the trip down memory lane today. Thanks, all, for sharing your stories, too!