The Daily Spin, January 19
Metric | Pagans in Vegas
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here.
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Album: Pagans in Vegas (2015)
Artist: Metric
Link:
Metric rips in the best sort of way - I first came to know of them due to their performance in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, in which they absolutely nailed the instrumentation to their track “Black Sheep” - and since then, have gradually worked my way into knowing this Canadian group better.
Though this was my first experience with this album specifically, I’d had a lot of time to peruse much of the rest of their discography, and I’m glad to report that this one does not disappoint as what I would argue is their most streamlined entry yet. One of the few drawbacks to this, of course, is the turnabout - in being streamlined, some of the album does get a little samey, but when it is good, it is perfect Metric - heavy on the electronic, heavy on lead vocalist Emily Haines (Broken Social Scene) - it’s everything you want.
Where this album gets a little messy is that most of the singles are my least favorite material - partially just the nature of things, sure, but a little disappointing all the same, as I think I came into the album with an altered perception of what to expect and maybe what I was getting myself into. Surely a higher grade resulted from that, but I don’t know that I’m necessarily in the wrong for feeling as though there’s a little asynchronicity to it all.
Rating: 7.8/10
Best Tracks: For Kicks; Other Side
Worst Tracks: Cascades