Metric completes their dauntless chronicling of post-pandemic life on their ninth studio album, Formentera II. The band also find themselves finishing off a string of tour dates in Canada, Europe, and the U.K. — but fingers crossed another round of dates are coming in the near future in support of the new record. As the veritable sequel to their 2022 album Formentera, its name borrowed from the smallest of a group of idyllic Mediterranean islands found off the coast of Spain, the new record finds the Canadian quartet blissfully adrift and footloose.
Formentera II picks up where the last album left off: its closing song, “Paths in the Sky,” finds the band basking in the weightless freedom of existing unmoored from a tumultuous world, searching for their footing in the companionship of loved ones and fellow wayfarers.
Peering toward the horizon — “High above the hellscape below” — “Stone Window” seeks out the signs of the future to come. “Now I fix my gaze / On a golden age / That I know will come,” Haines sings amidst streaks of swirling electronica and galvanizing riffs. But even armored with such refulgent hope, the past lingers on the bittersweet lullaby “Days of Oblivion,” as well as the anxious but glitteringly punkish “Just The Once.”
“Suckers” emerges as a simmering reckoning with the vitriol of the digital age, where a wall of phone screens and virtual communication only exacerbate the very worst in humanity: “Insane levels of a violent mob / Shared it, clicking the bait, but I won’t / Don’t get it contaminated love.” On “Nothing Is Perfect,” the band savors the liberation that comes with letting go, with Haines and James Shaw harmonizing: “No fences, no exits, no lies / Nothing is perfect, it’s gorgeous.”
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Oscillating between a heady steamroll of thrumming bass and a dreamily spacious outro, “Descendents” mulls over the merits and detriments — for the world and the individual — of procreation. “How many rounds of monogamy / Find me listing the glut of believers?” Haines questions wearily, even as she admits near the song’s end: “Stuck in my ways and afraid of conforming.”
On its closing track, Formentera II relinquishes itself to the inevitability of another crisis, syncing Haines’ melancholy to beaming sways of melodic radiance. “Treat an overcast day like an overdue holiday,” she coos. “Call my mom, bake a cake, smoke a bong.” But even as “Go Ahead And Cry” starts to swell and scintillate toward an uplifting crescendo — the band slips in one last portentuous sentiment.
One that recognizes the personal triumphs of overcoming a zeitgeist-busting pandemic pales in comparison to the collective effects and state of the world we live in. “For everything we did / As we stalled and rushed / Mother Nature is laughing at us / So go ahead and cry.”
Across their discography, Metric has retained this supernatural ability to capture the electricity of a moment, channeling its ecstatic and mercurial energy with a dazzling and, at times, foreboding intensity. Taken as a collective work, both Formentera I & II earnestly mythologize the shared chaotic milieu of humanity into a transcendent sonic journey.
Words: Steven Ward
Visit Metric on their website, TikTok, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Metric tour
10/14 – The Concert Hall – Toronto, ONT
10/17 – Courtyard Theater – London, UK
10/19 – Etoile – Paris, FRANCE
10/21 – Privat Klub – Berlin, GERMANY
11/21 – Metropolitan Theatre – Mexico City, MEXICO
11/22 – Showcenter Complex – Monterey, MEXICO
11/27 – Región Metropolitana, Chile – Teatro Coliseo – Santiago, CHILE
11/29-12/01 – São Paulo, BRAZIL
Listen to Formentera II the new album from Metric, below!
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