Metric have released their new single, ‘Nothing Is Perfect’ along with a music video directed by Justin Broadbent. The song is an acoustic outlier that puts lead-singer Emily Haines’ vocals and lyrics at the forefront.
Last month, exactly one year after the release of Metric’s 2022 album Formentera, the band surprised fans with an unannounced and unexpected part two companion album - Formentera II, set for release on October 13 via Metric Music International/Thirty Tigers. Both “Nothing Is Perfect” and the previously released “Just The Once” are featured on the new album.
“‘Nothing Is Perfect’ stands out on Formentera II as the lone track that is carried by only acoustic guitar and vocals. We explored many renditions of this song during the recording process, but in the end found that everything we tried adding seemed to detract from the essence of it,” Emily Haines said of the track. “Lyrically, ‘Nothing Is Perfect’ takes the common expression away from its usual meaning, giving substance to "nothing" as a concrete thing that can be actively pursued and obtained: Nothing is perfect/ I've earned it/ All absence achieved/ No fences, no exits, no lies. For the official music video, we worked with Justin Broadbent to create an atmospheric and surreal visual accompaniment to enhance the otherworldly mood of the song, with stylistic nods to Terrence Malick and David Lynch. The song ends with a meditative and anthemic repetition of the word "nothing", like I'm celebrating it and singing its praises. I love nothing!”
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.
