Metric

Metric have always been a band who can adapt to any surroundings, make them their own and produce something brilliant. You might not imagine a bank to be an environment particularly conducive to creativity, but if a couple of months back you had ventured upstairs into the space above a certain financial establishment in Toronto, Canada, you would have come across a group of musicians birthing an incredible record, relishing the freedom they found their newest base to have given them rather than feeling any of the constraints you might expect. That group was Metric, and the record is their second album 'Live it Out'.

"We made the first album (2003's 'Old World Underground, Where are You') in Los Angeles, in the daytime, with a producer, which was kind of weird for us," says singer/synth player/mouthpiece Emily Haines. "But this time, with the space above the bank we had unlimited time and worked by ourselves at night. We did everything exactly the way we wanted and so this record feels much more representative of who we are."

Indeed, that Metric's second album was made in their hometown (with moral support from equally creative locals and childhood friends Broken Social Scene and Stars) certainly shows - 'Live It Out' exudes the unmistakable, natural, confident feel of a band who now know exactly what they're all about, having spent 2004 and 2005 growing together, living in ever-changing environments. One month they’d be sharing a flat in NYC with like-minded souls Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars, the next playing sold out residencies in Toronto; Emily would be playing solo piano shows in churches, while the band supported the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden. Make no mistake, Emily, guitarist (and now sole producer) Jimmy Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott Key have been together for long enough in enough different environments (including both London and New York) to know when something feels right. And this time it does.

If the LA-birthed 'Old World Underground, Where Are You' was the sound of Metric experimenting and trying to find their feet, 'Live It Out' is their vision fully realised, untainted by outside interference. ("The record company didn't interfere for even one minute," Emily laughs, "we just delivered it to them and that was it!"). So from the ever-evolving, six minute opener 'Empty', through 'Poster Of A Girl''s blend of paranoid, sung-in-French couplets and pulsating electro, the feedback-drenched 'Monster Hospital' (featuring the refrain "I fought the war but the war won") and the new wave fuzz of the climatic title track, 'Live It Out' is an album that takes many disparate influences and fuses them into a brilliantly coherent statement. Recalling at times the anything-goes attitude of Sonic Youth ("We played with them in Paris and they really inspired us as people," notes Emily), its ten tracks are at once thrilling, disturbing and unique. Without question, Metric have made a record with which they can now introduce themselves to the wider world.

"We've been allowed to be ourselves and that really shows," enthuses Emily. "All the bands that have ever inspired us never sounded like anyone else - that's what we were aiming to do this time around. With 'Live It Out' we've definitely achieved that."

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