Metric Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (DKD) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
If all label horror stories ended this pleasantly, artists wouldn’t have anything to whine about in their interviews. When record industry politics left Metric’s wildly anticipated record in the vault, the group retreated to the studio and put together this stop-gap set instead. Less electronic and more electric than their past efforts, Old World Underground is concise, airtight thrill pop, structured around James Shaw’s deceptively hooky guitar/keyboard lines and Emily Haines’s oh-so-bored cooing. Rather than destroying them, it sounds like the year and a half in limbo gave Metric an unusual sense of confidence, or at the very least made them seem oddly relaxed.
Metric play Lula Lounge Friday (July 25).