Metric: Grow Up And Blow Away

Metric is a leading light of Toronto's Broken Social Scene circle these days, but the band was far different when it recorded its first album, Grow Up And Blow Away, in 2001. Instead of the guitar-heavy foursome familiar on the recent Live It Out, Metric was a trip-hoppy duo comprising only singer Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw. Metric's record label folded before Grow Up could be released, and by the time the band members found a new one, their style had changed so much that they shelved it in favor of the more-representative material on 2003's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now Grow Up shouldn't be dismissed as juvenilia or a collection of discarded experiments, though. The downtempo Saint Etienne-esque sound is fully realized, and Haines' lyrical and vocal dexterity is, if anything, given even more room to flower here.