Live it Out turns 15: how Metric's sophomore release solidified the band as a rock force
Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw explain why they needed to create a record that felt like armour
"When there's no way out, the only way out is to give in."
Fifteen years ago, Emily Haines sang these words on "Empty," the opening track of her band Metric's sophomore album, Live it Out. As a guitar riff slinks in, Haines delves into a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness that feels like it has finally taken a toll on the singer. Some of that was due to the band's years-long struggle to fit into the music industry (prior to its 2003 debut, Old World Underground, Where are you Now?, the band experienced label issues that prevented the release of another album), and some was attributed to the world at large: political strife, America's growing war in Iraq and climate change.
But then it happens: a tidal wave of sound comes crashing in. "Shake your head, it's empty," Haines sings on the song's chorus. In that exact moment comes a challenge: does shaking your head, moving your hips and feet mean giving up and retreating, or is it a wake-up call where the only way out is to live through it, however painful it will be?
It's a mood that feels even more relevant on this early fall evening as Haines and bandmate Jimmy Shaw call in from the middle of the woods where both are currently staying as the worldwide pandemic continues to unfold. In a recent newsletter to their fans, Haines announced an acoustic "Dirt Road version" of "Empty," adding: "The original version of the song appeared on our album Live it Out from 2005, but the lyrics sound oddly timely to me right now, hopefully in a way that brings out comfort and makes you feel good as opposed to defeated and/or depressed? Fingers crossed it gives you a boost." (Two more Dirt Road singles of tracks from Live it Out are out now as well as anniversary merch designed by Haines.)
As individuals and as a band, the members of Metric are rarely nostalgic. Oftentimes, their motivation comes from the knowledge, or hope, that "our best songs are ahead of us," as Haines firmly states. But even Haines and Shaw can't help but indulge in a conversation about the 15th anniversary of Live it Out. "In the current state of things, it's kind of nice to flash back," Haines admits, even occasionally glancing out the window in a wistful manner that she later catches herself doing and laughs at.
2005 might boast a similar futile energy as 2020 in some ways, but for Metric, those relatively early years of the band are a far cry from where they are now. In the past, Shaw has described this time around their first two proper releases as the "survival era," a time in which the band chose to drive from coast to coast and play a handful of shows because that was more sustainable than staying in one place and living in city standards. "I was like, great, this is solving all my problems," Haines remembers. "I got a per diem, we could eat dinner and just play shows — it might've just been a power bar and a shot of whisky, but that was dinner."
We made Live it Out so that we would have songs to protect ourselves.- Emily Haines
When they weren't on the road, Haines, Shaw and bandmates Joules Scott-Key and Joshua Winstead resided in a loft space above a bank in Toronto's east end. That is where Live it Out came together, with bodies all crammed into the space, and shredding guitars and pounding drums echoing late into the night as to avoid the business hours below. One bedroom would be the performance space and another would be the control room.
When asked about the goal of Live it Out, Haines is quick to liken the record to armour that needed to be built in order for the band to move forward. After releasing Old World Underground, Metric was given the opportunity to open for Billy Talent, a fellow Toronto act that was blowing up thanks to the success of its debut self-titled album. Suddenly opening for thousands of people made Metric realize that its music was "too tender," even if Metric's synth-rock wasn't entirely aligned with Billy Talent's more aggressive hard rock sound.
"We weren't the band we needed to be," Haines explains, adding that while Billy Talent was kind and generous to them, their fans were not as welcoming. "I was so scared and so upset.... We made Live it Out so that we would have songs to protect ourselves. You know, once you play 'Monster Hospital' for someone, they usually go, 'OK.' Like, we're more likely to throw something at you than you to throw something at us!"
That heavier, more rock-centric sound that Metric is known for today was already taking shape during those Old World Underground shows, so it only felt natural that the bandmates transferred that rambunctious energy into their live recordings. "We were just capturing what was happening onstage," Shaw says. But as the producer of the album, Shaw would often forget to enforce his own guitar parts, something that engineer and mixer John O'Mahony would have to remind him to do near the end of the recording process. "Where's all the guitars?" O'Mahony would ask Shaw, before taking the guitar faders and pushing them up.
It's an interesting thing to forget because so much of Live it Out's identity hinges on Shaw's guitar parts, wild and ferocious, going toe to toe with Haines' blunt lyrics about patriarchy, capitalism and surveillance state. Live it Out is the record that solidifies Metric as a rock band, an album that may take a few moments to get warmed up, but once that wall of sound breaks through on "Empty," it doesn't take its foot off the pedal until the final moments of its title track.
Critically, some argued that Haines' lyrics were too on the nose, or as Pitchfork's 4.2 review said, "didactic and smug." But Haines argues that the album's usefulness comes from its directness, encouraging listeners to blast each song and fill your veins with adrenaline. Lyrics like "Buy this car to drive to work/ drive to work to pay for this car" on the chugging "Handshakes" may read too literal, but sometimes stripping things down to their core can be the most powerful statement.
Other reviewers seemed hung up on Haines' performance on Broken Social Scene's breakout record, You Forgot it in People. Often contrasted by descriptions of her "soft, girlish vocals" on the track "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl," critics seemed fixated on finding that version of Haines. But, as she warns, "If you want that girl, that's not me. I'm the girl in Metric. I'm not a disembodied voice run through a guitar pedal by Brendan Canning. I'm a full person."
Even through some skeptical reviews, Live it Out ended up being Metric's big breakout album. It earned the band its first Juno Award nomination, for alternative album of the year, as well as a shortlist nomination for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize in 2006. While the band didn't take either title home, Shaw says that recognition let them know that "it was happening, culturally, for us." Another cultural marker was getting "Monster Hospital" featured on Grey's Anatomy, a show that was known to break indie artists thanks to its music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas. (The show's other musical successes include Snow Patrol, Tegan and Sara and Ingrid Michaelson.)
When Old World Underground came out, Shaw remembers thinking, "This band might work." And with Live it Out, it proved that not only would Metric work, but that it would thrive. For whatever obstacles stand in front of Metric in the coming months or years, they will always be armed and ready for battle.