Review Summary: How can the same track appear on the same album twice? Yeah, every track sounds pretty much the same
Indie rock is a genre, much like metal and dubstep (wouldn't even count dubstep as music, more like transformers having sex) where all the music sounds the same. They all sing about the same subject, and its hard to distinguish one artist from another. Metric is no different. They're good, but they've not brought anything new to the party. Not to say that's a bad thing, if you're a fan of indie rock, then get this album no questions asked. But if you're only a casual fan like me, give it a listen before spending money on it (I borrowed this from my Metric obsessed friend).
Anyway, Old World Underground is your typical indie rock album. It's soft, but still packs a punch. The lyrics make little sense (a few songs have lyrics that do, but most its like Emily got drunk and just wrote whatever came to mind). The album opens with I.O.U. It's a pretty good song, and sets you up for the rest of the album because the rest sounds pretty much the same. Not to say that's awful, but it just means you'll find yourself skipping over a few of them. Wet Blanket is a nice track. It's catchy, the lyrics make some sense, but again, you'll find it hard to distinguish this song from the rest.
I'm not going to go through each track individually, I'd end up saying the same thing over and over. I'd end up saying the same thing over and over.
The great tracks, or to put it another way, the ones I don't skip over, are Combat Baby and Succexy. These two, yeah, they do sound like all the others, but these songs just stand out as better written, and have some different drum patterns. Also, Emily Haines singing on these two tracks is some of the best I've heard from Metric. She hits every note, and doesn't sound tired and hung over like the rest. And these two are the only reason I'm giving it a "good" rating, rather than "Average".
The song that I can say I hate, is Dead Disco. Now hear me out, cos I know quite a few metric fans consider this to be one of their best. And I hate this track purely for the way Emily sings it, and the lyrics. Take this line "tits out pants down overnight to London". I mean, really? Could you not have written something a little more poetic or intelligent than that? Emily doesn't really sing this, aside from the chorus. She's sort of, speaking it. But the way she does, it's just irritating. You could say this track just pisses me off.
All in all, definitely give it a listen, you're bound to enjoy a few songs, but overall it's a pretty weak album. If you're an indie rock fan, then go and buy this, because you no doubt will love it. But for casual fans, give it a go, but there's not much here that hasn't been done before and better. I would recommend their album Fantasies over this, that album has some brilliant tracks
