Metric Break Down New Album Formentera II Track by Track: Exclusive
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The post Metric Break Down New Album Formentera II Track by Track: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists guide readers through every song on their latest release. Today, Metric take us through their latest record, Formentera II.
Canadian rock mainstays Metric return today (Friday, October 13) with their brand new album, Formentera II, out via Metric Music International/Thirty Tigers. This is the follow-up and direct sequel to their 2022 album Formentera, building on the addictive hooks and lushness of its predecessor. With these nine new tracks, the band is showing they still have what it takes to mix things up.
The band is as groovy as ever, particularly on the single “Just This Once,” with Joshua Winstead’s bassline rooting the song in a funk style before it switches up in the second half. With another year to grow together, the band sounds re-energized on the dream pop-influenced single “Who Would You Be For Me,” while still remaining faithful to their alternative rock roots.
“This is where I realized that what I was supposed to do was let go,” guitarist Jimmy Shaw says of the track “Days of Oblivion.” “Feel every feeling. Take myself and all of us on a journey and thus be taken on it too. Metric has been around for 20 some years now and I truly believe this is new ground for us.”
These tracks all indicate the beginning of a new era for the band, with plenty of new ideas to move forward with in the future.
Listen to Metric’s Formentera II below, followed by the band’s Track by Track breakdown of the record.
“Detour Up”:
Jimmy Shaw: This was one of the first songs we wrote in the entire Formentera saga. In the summer of 2020, long before we knew how long the world would be locked down. There’s a pretty clear message here of taking a detour to who knows where, and that was definitely what we were feeling. The track has a bounce like you’re barreling down a road without a destination. I love it when the guitar just plays the vocal melodies and how it picks up from the vocal into the solo. That’s a cool moment. It’s a peppy way to start a record that goes a lot of different places. It’s meant to lure you in without giving away too much, which is a major departure from how we usually open records. We usually attempt to jam all the energy of the entire album into the opening track. You might have to be a little more patient this time.
“Just This Once”:
JS: We tried to get sleazy here, cheeky in a way and lying to yourself about your own boundaries. “Regret disco” is the phrase we have been using to describe it. Originally we had a much cleaner, kinda more Bee Gees guitar tone but it was making it all a bit tidy. It came together when we dirtied that up and made it a bit tougher. The bridge came from a whole other song written in a different time, place, key, tempo, but Emily had a vision of Frankenstein amalgamation and with major surgery it worked. And I’m so grateful because I find her writing in that bridge to be some of my favorite Emily lyrics of all time. Hits hard!
“Stone Window”:
JS: I was convinced for the longest time this was gonna be the opening track to all of Formentera. “Yesterday I left for tomorrow, there was nothing after today.” This is what happened. We felt like we left the world we knew, and for a while we were suspended in time between realities. It felt like we could envision a possible future and what that might feel like. Did it manifest? Hard to say. Another one of my favorite bridges we’ve ever done. The rhythmic vocal bouncing on top of the synth line is magic to me. I’m not saying that we did one tiny thing that I haven’t heard anyone else do in the history of rock but…actually yeah, I am saying that.
“Days of Oblivion”:
JS: This is the heart center of the entire Formentera epic for me. Also written very early on, this is where I realized that what I was supposed to do was let go. Feel every feeling. Take myself and all of us on a journey and thus be taken on it too. Metric has been around for 20 some years now and I truly believe this is new ground for us. Not like in “Stone Window,” where there’s a new musical idea, but because there’s a real sense of peace. Not to be confused with resolution, but peace within the knowing that everything is and isn’t ok. And that’s a big step for us. I love this song and think it will always be the one I go back to when I want to remember this feeling.
“Who Would You Be For Me”:
Emily Haines: This song is a throwback lullaby set in NYC in 2002. All the action takes place in Tompkins Square Park, in a subway car, and at the café on St. Marks Place where I worked as a waitress when we were getting our start. Automatic behaviors and patterns are often fairly easy to flag in others but can be a riddle to spot in yourself. All the emphasis in your mind can default to being what someone else wants until it dawns on you to consider your own desire. I could be the girl for you, but who would you be for me?
“Suckers”:
EH: Step out from behind the wall of the world. There are so many ways to feel exploited and invisible. It’s not that you aren’t right, but it’s unsustainable to exist in a permanent state of outrage. You gotta take breaks.
“Nothing Is Perfect”:
EH: This one stands out on Formentera II as the lone track that is carried by only acoustic guitar and vocals. We explored many renditions of this song during the recording process, but in the end found that everything we tried adding seemed to detract from the essence of it. Lyrically, “Nothing Is Perfect” takes the common expression away from its usual meaning, giving substance to “nothing” as a concrete thing that can be actively pursued, obtained and achieved. The song ends with a meditative and anthemic repetition of the word “nothing,” like I’m celebrating it and singing its praises. I love nothing!
“Descendants”:
EH: This song is a companion to “Doomscroller.” Thematically, it’s not the same, but stylistically you get a similar contrast between sections, with introspection slammed up against strong and scary beat driven electronics with a repeated and somewhat robotic vocal mantra. I want to make a t-shirt that says, “stuck in my ways and afraid of conforming.” That’s how I feel a lot of the time, like I’m afraid of becoming someone I’m not and stubbornly protecting myself from social erosion.
“Go Ahead and Cry”:
EH: To me, there is no better way to close the eighteen song odyssey that is Formentera I & II than with the visual of mother nature laughing at us as we stall and rush. You can cry, and you probably should because life is crazy and it’s a healthy release, but it isn’t going to change the fact of your utter insignificance in the larger scope of this world and the universe. Consider that reality, and let the tears fly.
Metric Break Down New Album Formentera II Track by Track: Exclusive
Aidan Sharp-Moses
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