More about: Metric

Formentera – the eighth album from Toronto band Metric – is an apocalyptic dance album which drags you from the abyss, acknowledging the fragile fate of life on Earth whilst encouraging you to appreciate those around you and the here and now. 

The depth of the album reveals itself over multiple listens with three clear parts to it: mental anguish conveyed via dark, claustrophobic electronic music; dreamy, imaginative lyrics set to grand, cinematic arrangements; and finding peace with the way things are as indie dance tunes. 

Musically, the journey is akin to Daft Punk’s Tron followed by Elbow-level splendour and a final sound similar to CHRVCHES. 

Synths abound throughout with frontwoman Emily Haines displaying a full range of vocal styles from hypnotic monotony in verses to crisp choruses and chanting through to singing with every fibre of her body. Guitarist Jimmy Shaw adds extra punch and grit to the songs with drummer Joules Scott-Key leading on the pace of the songs, whether acoustically or through the extensive use of electronic percussion, and bassist Joshua Winstead leaning in to the heavy electronic soundscapes. 

The first part of the album covers the three singles, all dark and edgy in their own way. Listeners are not so much eased into Formentera as plunged into its world with 10-minute opener ‘Doomscroller’. Haines reacts to the relentless bleakness of the news agenda over restless synth and bass – “I’m a true doomscroller, I can’t seem to shut it down” – with the music crescendoing into a Faithless-style club banger. The darkness is lifted momentarily by piano and Haines’ lyrical gear shift to tender outreach for the song’s subject before the dance music returns and acoustic guitar breaks this up to allow for a rock outro. Intense, oddball, yet it works. 

Lead single ‘All Comes Crashing’ forecasts the end of the world but has Haines declaring “there’s no one I would rather be dying beside”. It’s a fantastic, relatable pop song elevated by Shaw’s guitar in the chorus which is sure to be sung back by fans at their shows. If listeners’ vocal chords get a good workout in ‘All Comes Crashing’ then it’s their necks which are next in the firing line with catchy, electronic headbanger ‘What Feels Like Eternity’. Beginning with Queens of the Stone Age-style bass accompanied by Haines’ urgent vocals in a sci-fi soundtrack set-up, the single is the album’s standout track with its repetitive chorus and Haines’ soaring harmonies. 

The title track then breaks up the tight electronica with atmospheric strings and Haines poetically describing her yearning for greater freedom. Formentera, near Ibiza, was featured on a page left open in a travel magazine in Shaw’s recording studio in 2020 and the song sums up the desire to be free from lockdown and venture to new places again. Its production is almost too polished – like much of Danger Mouse’s Rome soundtrack – and leaves you a little cold. Where it works better, however, is as the companion track to ‘Enemies Of The Ocean’ – an epic orchestral lament at the state of the Earth and the innocent ignorance that lay the foundation for the climate crisis. Haines’ vocals are at their very best in its stirring chorus and it could be the perfect accompaniment to a BBC nature documentary (in a good way). 

Synths return for the final part of the album, with the existential dread in the opening three songs cathartically shed for four triumphant party anthems. ‘I Will Never Settle’ chronicles the unconventional career path chosen by the band and their acceptance of the path they are on with Haines channelling Ellie Goulding in her vocal delivery; ‘False Dichotomy’ could be a ‘Time to Pretend’-era MGMT track with its uplifting synth and layered vocal chants during the verses as Haines comments on there being a price to every relationship; and ‘Oh Please’ carries on where ‘I Will Never Settle’ left off with reflections on choosing a path less travelled featuring more great guitar from Shaw and drumming designed to get you to tap your toes from Key. 

Closer ‘Paths in the Sky’ is an arms-aloft anthem with a drumbeat designed to get audiences clapping along in the verse before the lovely chorus kicks in. Delicately arranged, this is about as far as you can get from the darkness Formentera began with, marking the end of the three-part journey. 

Dragging you this way and that, Formentera is a stunningly curated nine-song window into Haines’ world which will leave you craving its performance in a live setting so you can let loose in the throng of a crowd.

Formentera arrives 8 July. 

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More about: Metric