Metric: Emily Haines (vocals, keyboards); Jimmy Shaw (guitars); Joshua Winstead (electric bass); Joules Scott Key (drums).
In the mid-2000s, Canadian indie-rockers Broken Social Scene proved to be something of a cottage industry, between their own records and such offshoots as Feist and Metric. The latter group, which features BSS keyboardist/singer Emily Haines, comes fully into its own on its second album, LIVE IT OUT. The mix of contemporary indie rock and early-'80s New Wave is buoyed by some colorful synthesizer lines amid the terse guitars and drums, and Haines's vocal presence is at once subtle and commanding.
What the critics say...
Uncut (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Writer/singer Emily Haines is still secretly one of the most articulate, compelling performers in modern rock....[With] a voice that's by turns scathing, despairing and, finally, defiantly hopeful."
Magnet (p.102) - "'Poster Of A Girl' sports a slinky French-pop backbeat and matching breathy pouts..."
CMJ (No. 930, p.6) - "...[A]n urgent and flexible dance-rock-pop album that fuses all three elements to conjure up the best of '90s alternative rock, with a splash of Brit intellect."
