The latest in news from the cultural universe
Just For Culture
  • Home
  • Art & Literature
  • Music
  • Day & Nightlife
  • Film & TV
  • About Us & Contact

Album Review: Metric - Pagans in Vegas

27/9/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
It must be a bit shit being the guitarist for a successful alternative band. It seems nowadays every alternative band is ditching rockers in favour of huge synthy pop songs created with successful EDM producers.

Metric, however, are a different animal. The Canadian quartet have always loved their synths. The majority of Metric's work uses guitar as a layer along with strong new wave synths. Guitarist James Shaw and bassist Joshua Winstead even double up as synth players. Their latest offering, Pagans in Vegas, however, shows the band go almost completely electro.

The album starts on fairly familiar ground with Lie Lie Lie with lead singer, Emily Haines spitting dark lyrics over huge electric drums. It's after this that Pagans starts to take some real risks.

Fortunes is dark electronica ditty with a lush, sweeping chorus. What truly makes it a Pagans In Vegas track is its very weird, discordant synth line. The disparity between the synth lead and the melodically rich chorus is interesting if not a little jarring.

They try the dissonant synth motif trick again for next track, The Shade which starts with what sounds like a 80's video-game sound effect. This turns into a huge catchy pop anthem with the short sound effect repeating under a massive chorus. It's Metric showing that even with something as weird as a 'level up' noise, they can still create fantastically catchy pop songs.

Many electronic music subgenres are explored on Pagans. For example, Celebrate starts like a 90's trance song, Other Side like a new-romantic swoon and For Kicks has a noticeably europop chorus. While the album is very throwback, their songwriting along with fantastic track layering completely transcends each genre they take on.

One of the most interesting tracks on the album is Cascades, an understated yet emphatically produced dance beat. The song sounds as if it had been lifted out of a SEGA Genesis game set in 1980's Miami. Haines' vocals are put through a vocoder making them almost incomprehensible while played over atonal sweeps and a funky synth bass line. It isn't until after a couple of plays that the song reveals itself as a brooding yet incredibly sweet song, and arguably the best track on the album.

The video-game influence appears throughout the album, but it's most noticeable on closing two-parter The Face. The first 30 seconds of Part II sounds as though it's waiting for someone to press start. The band builds on the 8-bit base with huge pads and vocoders to create an anthemic dance song, bizarrely interrupted with ringing phones and a rendition of Bach's Bouree in E Minor. Unfortunately, unlike Cascades and Celebrate, the second part of the track puts style over song-writing. Although Part II isn't as fun or engaging as it's predecessor, the drawn out pads are effective as a low key, introspective closer.


Pagans In Vegas contains some of Metric's catchiest pop songs, and yet the vast majority of its tracklist would sound lost on any of their earlier albums. It's the Canadian quartet's most ambitious outing yet, and it proves that even when Metric stray further from the tried and tested, they can still write fantastic pop songs.
Grant Robertson
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Music

    Bringing you the latest music news, features and opinions from the JFC mind

    Archives

    May 2021
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    2013
    2014
    2015
    Abandon Ship
    Aberdeen
    Album
    Alex Metric
    Alternative
    Austin Carlile
    Band
    Becky Hill
    Beyonce
    Biffy
    Biffy Clyro
    Blackened Sky
    Blog
    Bono
    Broken Social Scene
    Calvin Harris
    Camden
    Charlie Simpson
    Chart
    Chris Martin
    CHVRCHES
    Clyro
    Coldplay
    Dance
    Dangermouse
    D&B
    Deadmau5
    Decade
    Drum And Bass
    Dublin
    EDM
    Ella Eyre
    Exclusive
    Festival
    Full Crate
    Gecko
    Genre
    Ghost Stories
    Giorgio Moroder
    Girl Friend
    Glasgow
    God Level
    Gorgon City
    Gwyneth Paltrow
    Handguns
    Heart To Heart
    Hit The Lights
    House
    Hudson Mohawke
    If I Go
    Indie
    Infinity Land
    Innovative
    Interview
    In The Lonely Hour
    Ireland
    ITunes
    Jesse Glynne
    Jess Glynne
    JproD
    Jurassic 5
    Kanye-west
    Kilmainham
    Kings
    King-tuts
    King-tuts020c7650de
    Knife Party
    Latest
    Liquid Room
    Little Matador
    Little Mix
    Live
    Live Review
    Living Without You
    London
    McBusted
    Mentirosa
    Metric
    MK
    Monarchy
    Money On My Mind
    Motion
    Music
    Myspace
    Neck Deep
    New
    New Music
    News
    New Wave
    Of Mice & Men
    Oliver $
    Oliver Heldens
    Online
    Only Revelations
    OPM
    Opposites
    Overdrive
    Paloma Faith
    Paul Epworth
    PAWS
    Pendulum
    Pop
    Pop Punk
    Pop-Punk
    Punk-Rock
    Puzzle
    Rating
    Reasons
    Remi
    Remix
    Review
    Ric Ocasek
    Rivers Cuomo
    Rob Swire
    Rock
    Royal Hospital
    Rudimental
    Ryan Tedder
    Sam Smith
    Scotland
    Scottish
    Simon Neil
    Single
    Singles
    Slam Dunk
    Sleep Deprived
    Social Network
    Songs Of Innocence
    Soul
    Synthpop
    Technology
    The 1975
    The Pierces
    The Story So Far
    The Xcerts
    Tour
    Twin Atlantic
    U2
    Video
    Wah Wah Hut
    We Are The In Crowd
    Website
    Weezer
    Xcerts
    Yeezus
    Youth Culture Forever

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.