METRIC RELEASE NEW SINGLE ‘WHO WOULD YOU BE FOR ME’
ANNOUNCE INTIMATE STRIPPED BACK UK & EU SHOWS
INCLUDING A DATE AT THE COURTYARD THEATRE IN LONDON ON OCT 17TH
NEW ALBUM – FORMENTERA II – OUT OCTOBER 13TH
CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEBUT ALBUM OLD WORLD UNDERGROUND, WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
Metric have released their new single, ‘Who Would You Be For Me.’ The single appears on their forthcoming album Formentera II, out on October 13 via Metric Music International/Thirty Tigers. The album is the surprise follow up to Metric’s 2022 album Formentera. In addition to the new single, both ‘Nothing Is Perfect’ and ‘Just The Once’ have been released in the past few weeks.
“‘Who Would You Be For Me’ is a throwback lullaby set in NYC in 2002. All the action takes place in Tompkins Square Park, in a subway car, and at the café on St. Marks Place where I worked as a waitress when we were getting our start,” lead singer Emily Haines says of the track. “Automatic behaviors and patterns are often fairly easy to flag in others, but can be a riddle to spot in yourself. In life and in love, all the emphasis in your mind can default to being what someone else wants until it dawns on you to consider your own desire. I could be the girl for you, but who would you be for me?”
This week also marks the 20 year anniversary of their remarkable debut, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, and Metric have re-issued the album on vinyl with new color variants (neon violet, hot pink and tangerine), available now in the Metric Store.
To celebrate this incredible milestone, Metric will also play a series of intimate concerts this autumn at some of their favourite clubs in the US, Canada and Europe. The shows will kick off on October 10th at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, with a run of very special Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw acoustic shows in London, Paris and Berlin. Tickets for are on sale now HERE.
Formentera II was recorded primarily at the band’s own Main Street Studios in a rural hamlet outside Toronto from 2020-2022 and was completed at Motorbass Studios in Paris in 2023. From Main Street to Motorbass, this is Metric at its best.
As was the case with Formentera, the songs of Formentera II were brought to life with Metric’s tried and true co-engineering & co-production trinity of Jimmy Shaw, Liam O’Neil, and Gus van Go, this time with the trio guiding the unpredictable process to completion from Main Street to Motorbass in Paris, the studio where some of the band’s favorite artists and sources of inspiration such as Air, Daft Punk and Sébastien Tellier have worked, in the very neighborhood Metric first visited with Olivier Assayas in 2004 when working with the director on his Cannes Palme D’Or award-winning film Clean. The final touches that happened on Formentera II in Paris at the end of the European leg of Metric’s global Doomscroller Tour infused the album with fresh energy and made for a celebratory finish to the labyrinthine process of making these two ambitious albums during the pandemic.
Taken together, Formentera I & II embody an 18 song statement piece written and performed by a dedicated band of artists at the height of their sonic and songwriting powers. Solidifying their identity as genre-defying risk takers, as they did 20 years ago with their debut album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, Metric’s ninth studio album Formentera II continues to build upon the body of work that drives the group’s urgent purpose, with Haines acting as a lighting rod at the helm, expressing and interpreting the turbulence of life in this world, giving our complex emotions a voice.
Formentera II will be released physically on CD and on limited edition marble blue vinyl as well as sea glass blue vinyl. Metric are also releasing a complete double vinyl set of both Formentera I & II on opaque white vinyl. It’s all available for pre-order now in the Metric store. Digital pre-orders are available HERE. Indie retailers will carry a limited edition clear pink version of the Formentera II LP.
UK & EU DATES:
October:
Tues 17th The Courtyard Theatre, London
Thur 19th Etoile, Paris
Sat 21st Privat Klub, Berlin