Why is Metric’s Fantasies on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer?
Some stats & info about Metric – Fantasies
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Canadian Bands, Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Post-Punk Revival
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out 5 stars
- When was Fantasies released? 2009
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #678 out of 1,000
Metric’s Fantasies on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Metric’s Fantasies mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
I first became aware of Metric by way of the movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. That movie is packed with fantastic music, and even so the song “Black Sheep,” stood out as being particularly great. In the movie it’s performed by the fictitious band, Clash at Demonhead, which might be the most fantastic fake band name this side of Sex Bob-omb, and credited to Metric and Brie Larson on the movie soundtrack.
It turns out that Metric is fantastic in its own right, and Fantasies is the album that I feel best shows off its brand powerful alt rock guitar hooks, lush production, and lead singer Emily Haines’ fantastic voice. And “Help I’m Alive” is the perfect example of those qualities.
“Gold Guns Girls” edges into a dance beat, with a high energy sound that carries along with seeming effortlessness.
“Front Row” adds a nice underbelly of chugging grunginess that has really grown on me as it sounds so… likeable, for lack of a better word, when matches with the song’s (and album’s) overall production sheen and “clean” overall sound.
“Gimme Sympathy” is a fun lyrical ride through classic rock (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Doors at least get name checked) and nostalgia, with a fun tongue in cheek song title presumably playing off The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” It’s also the best pure pop song on Fantasies.