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Was it a dream holiday in which your every wish came true,or the vacation from hell where everything went wrong? The reviews for this album tend to be either utterly derisive and completely dismissive of its merits,or positively sparkling with effervescent,unwarranted praise. The album’s actual accomplishments are closer to the middle,with a hell of a lot of promise threaded through its songs.
This is Metric an indie rock/new wave band hailing from the great land of Canada. They are Emily Haines (vocals,synthesizer &guitar),James Shaw (guitar &theremin),Josh Winstead (bassist) and Joules Scott-Key (drummer). They started in Toronto but have been all over the world at various times. Background Info: I found them thanks to My One True Radio Station,aka the Alternative Channel on Music Choice. They kept playing “Help I’m Alive” and finally I just had to find out more about the band that made this song I liked so damn much. So first I hit up RCRD LBL’s site to see if they had a listing for Metric,which they did:Metric page on RCRD LBL Happily,they had two,not just one,songs available to stream &download. I’ve embedded the streaming player here,or you can just click on the link above.
You can read a detailed History of Tegan &Sara over on Wikipedia,so I won’t replicate that here. I found them because I heard one of their songs played on a tv show,but for the life of me I can’t recall which one. Obviously their music was superior to the show using it. I promptly looked them up and was thrilled to find a female-lead band (two queer females even!) that made songs that were both musically and lyrically satisfying to me. All too often I find the best female bands/singers have songs that,while amazingly well done,are also fucking suicide-inducing. And I understand why that is. Women,even now,have a lot of shit poured on them. It’s only natural to write about that,work through it,protest against it via art. I applaud that even. But as someone who honestly can’t handle my own shitty life,I am unable to take on the additional burden of other women’s pain. So with Tegan &Sara I was pleased to find songs that resonated strongly on an emotional level but that did not overwhelm me with pain and despair.
This is Yeasayer,they are Quirky with a capital Q! Some people find them to be an acquired taste,but it’s a taste well worth acquiring. They’re based out of Brooklyn,NY and the three main members are Chris Keating,Ira Wolf Tuton,and Anand Wilder (who gets his hotass on in the video for O.N.E.). I found this delightful band due to a recommendation by Spencer Smith [ref] and Brendon Urie [ref] from Panic! at the Disco. Now usually the bands I love the most,tend to enjoy music I really don’t care for. I suspect that’s due in part to how I listen to songs versus how they listen to them [ref]. As fate would have it,I was listening to the Alternative Music Choice channel and Yeasayer’s Ambling Alp came on. I’ll be honest,my first reaction was confusion. I literally tilted my head to the side and made the o.O face. However,by the end of the song I was starting to get it. Get what they were going for,get their sound. Subsequent listens only served to increase my enjoyment. I can’t recall now what prompted me to buy their album Odd Blood,though I suspect it was because it was on sale at AmazonMP3 (which is still going on,only $5!!). But whatever,I’m super glad I did. Because Ambling Alp was not the only really nifty song on the album. Not at all. The first song on the album,The Children,might throw you off at first. It sounds so different from the light-heartedness of Ambling Alp. Stick with it. The payoff is amazing. My personal favorite song (at the moment) on Odd Blood is Mondegreen. I just love the beat,the energy,the instruments. It makes me want to get up and move. I’ve been told that this song is weird even for this band. What can I say,I’m a weirdo. *shrug* But really,I adore the whole album. From start to finish there’s not one miss. I haven’t yet listened to their prior album,All Hour Cymbals,though I love them for the punnery alone. When I’ve got spending monies again,it’s high on my To Buy list. | |||
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