rock n roll is back from the dead

seriously folks, when was the last time you heard a good rock record? not pop-rock, not emo-rock, not even 80s hair band rock, but just good old alternative rock. i'm willing to bet that it was sometime in the 90s, as evidenced by the fact that "modern rock" stations are still playing nirvana every two seconds.
if you, like me, are infinitely irritated by this, you'll be happy to hear that metric's new album fantasies is a sprawling, guitar-driven masterpiece that is, in my opinion, capable of reviving an almost extinct genre. i'm talking about catchy hooks, pounding drums, and of course, dirty, grimey distorted guitars. the cherry on top is emily haines' appealingly careless vocals, an ever-so-slightly-flat sing-song that says i'm way too cool to give a shit whether or not my pitch is perfect.
lyrically, this album is among the most intense i've heard. in my opinion rock lyrics have suffered possibly more than any other aspect of the genre. when rockers started disowning the emotion behind the music, they forced it, like any thing that is stifled, to emerge in disturbing forms, such as slit-your-wrists emo, or whiny, creed-esque country rock (shudder). it seems that nowadays it's considered hip to remain emotionally distant from the music you write.
while the lyrics to these songs do border on the enigmatic, they still contain enough raw emotional substance to truly hit home. whether on the glittery, creeptastic satelite mind, or in the animal orgy/throwdown of stadium love, these songs pack a punch while still managing to leave plenty of space for the listeners own interpretation. to me, this an album about what happens at 4 am in the dessert, but i highly doubt that anyone else has made the same connection. in a way, that makes it even more special to me, because my understanding of it is so highly personal.
this is, perhaps what i like best about this album. it is what you make of it. these are the kind of songs that encourage you to think, to imagine, to become inspired. (i took out my guitar for the first time in years, just to attempt to learn gimme sympathy so that i could play it for fluff.) in this way, metric has taken it way back, to the root of everything. fantasies is what rock n roll dreams are made of.

love always

p.s.- there's even acoustic versions of some of the songs. how fucking rock n roll is that?