After the successful release of a new record only six months ago, Metric is turning still-young “Fantasies” into, well, a fantasy. And a pretty peculiar one, I’ll suggest.
The Canadian quartet has joined forces with a social network called IMVU, which, unlike the familiar templates of Facebook and MySpace, is a three-dimensional virtual world. Online users create avatars — their animated counterparts — in order to meet and engage with other participants whose origins are worldwide.
Metric recently opened an IMVU interactive store where avatars can rack up on the band’s merchandise, including “Fantasies,” for their digital cosmos. In conjunction with its IMVU promotions, Metric released a five-track acoustic EP with the very literal title “Plug In, Plug Out.” The same songs are found on “Fantasies,” but the new album’s cloudy mood challenges the vitality of Metric’s electric material.
Kicking off the effort is “Gold Guns Girls,” a song that landed in the middle of “Fantasies” where it originally kept a frantic pace.
Vocalist Emily Haines trades her warped synthesizer play for a traditional piano sound and she patters the steady melody as though her fingers hardly have the strength. Guitarist James Shaw mimics her hands with equally soft picks at his strings. It feels almost lethargic, but the exhaustion makes sense during the faster chorus when Haines sings, “I just want to be your friend,” and repeatedly asks, “Is it ever going to be enough?”
The unfavorable answer seems implied.
Despite the third track on the EP’s seemingly despondent title, “Help I’m Alive” serves as a pick-me-up after “Gold Guns Girls.” Haines boasts a charming soprano during the chorus, which is complemented with a cheery tambourine. During the bridge crescendo, however, guitarist Shaw provides backing vocals for Reid that are flat enough to skip across water.
“Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer?” Haines asks. When Shaw echoes “beating like a hammer,” there’s no hope for a pulse. It’s a distraction from the lyrical optimism of “Help I’m Alive” that prevails.
Shaw does recover on “Satellite Mind,” when his vocal crass becomes a soft croon and layers well with Haines’s pipes. He also manages grit with his guitar that was unheard on the song’s original version, which at times felt too fragile. And with lines like “I’m not suicidal/I just can’t get out of bed,” the raw acoustics better fit the mood.
“Get hot/get too close to the flame,” Haines sings on the closer “Gimme Sympathy.” But she’s not just pitching the cliche of reaching for the stars. “We’re so close to something better left unknown,” Haines adds, rounding out a melancholy view of the youth-to-adulthood transition. It’s an interesting album conclusion, for while its message is a downer, “Gimme Sympathy” has the quickest stride of them all. Haines' heavy hands completely abandon the keys and Shaw’s strumming sounds more jovial.
“Plug In, Plug Out” is certainly a departure from Metric’s known repertoire. For listeners used to its energetic sounds and Haines’ sultry, confident voice, “Plug In, Plug Out” will seem very tame and dark. That’s not to say the album is a disappointment, however; the songs are surely engaging — haunting at times — a feat achieved with only one guitar and reserved piano play. “Plug In, Plug Out” might not provide the best party tunes for IMVU avatar gatherings, but the masters behind the keyboards should give the album a spin on their stereos.