Emily Haines was there. In 1998, she moved from Toronto to Williamsburg and lived in a loft with members of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio after her fledgling band settled on the name Metric. Over the next 25 years, the synth-heavy quartet grew into an institution of Canadian rock by steadily tweaking its sleek dance-rock sound. Their early albums showcased a snappy post-punk confidence. Then, Metric’s peak came on 2009’s Fantasies, which paired needling electronics with thumping drum programming; both it and its follow-up, Synthetica, hit the top 10 on the Canadian albums chart and went platinum in Canada. Following those highs came a string of solid but unexciting records, which mostly stuck with Metric’s formula while adding the occasional left-field lyric about the Kool-Aid-drinking masses or confounding reference to QAnon.
Romanticize the Dive, Metric’s tenth album, looks backwards in an attempt to recapture those old glories. Haines is lost in hindsight, sometimes singing about what ifs and remembering her hell-raising era, sometimes wanting to abandon it all for a fresh start. Under her, the band churns out buzzing synths and reverb-drenched electric guitars that hum along like Obama-era optimism never curdled. With the assistance of producer Gavin Brown, who lent a glossy touch to Fantasies and Synthetica, Metric offers a simulacrum of their signature sound, one that lacks Haines’ snotty energy but provides a few melodies that can rival the band’s best.
Haines’ finest storytelling on Romanticize the Dive comes when she uses conversational language to convey precarious feelings. “Time Is a Bomb” captures the real-time thrill of rushing to someone’s apartment after getting a late night text with breathy, slippery vocals. “I am always up and I’m always down,” she pledges over a buzzsaw guitar. On “As if You’re Here,” Haines tries to transform her grief over a friend’s death into something lasting: “But it’s all I have, this song you’ll never hear,” she whispers, knowing that even the best songs can’t counteract loss.
But even as it rehashes the spirit of Metric’s successes, Romanticize the Dive often lacks the playful spark of the band’s earlier work. With its searing synth-bass and walloping drums, “Victim of Luck” would have worked as a Synthetica b-side; “Time Is a Bomb,” which starts with a reliable kick-drum-and-bass stomp, initially scans like a blend of Metric’s former hits. When, on “Clouds to Break,” Haines reflects directly about how her rockstar aspirations have often felt unsatisfying, she sounds impressively honest: “All this running around/I never found what I’m running toward,” she sings. But just as often, she delivers those bittersweet thoughts through awkward phrases that convey little: “I’m vibratin’/I'm oscillatin’” she belts on “Tremolo,” while “Crush Forever” finds Haines declaring that instead of partying, she prefers “the sidelines, peaceful zen.”
Haines’ dynamic vocals often bail out the more inelegant lyrics. But it doesn’t help when her bandmates seem to be on autopilot, working with a distracting series of references to the band’s influences. Her falsetto is in robust shape on “Antigravity,” but it otherwise sounds as if Le Tigre had focused on getting added to a PureGym playlist. On some tracks, it seems like keyboardist and guitarist James Shaw never bothered to swap out his reference tracks for distinct tones: Those cathartic “Dance Yrself Clean” synths throughout “Loyal” only draw attention away from Haines’ excellent ascending pre-chorus melody.
Of course, Metric aren’t alone in their nostalgia for aughts-era Brooklyn. The night before the album’s release, Metric invited fans to a Bushwick roller rink to celebrate, asking them to show up in their “finest indie sleaze attire” (a term that, for what it’s worth, was never actually used to describe contemporary culture during Metric’s peak). Soon, they’ll tour with fellow Canadian ’00s mainstays Broken Social Scene and Stars. There’s no harm in looking backwards; plenty of great songwriters have proven that nostalgia can be a source of new insight. But on Romanticize the Dive, Metric never quite reignite the spark that powered their heyday.
