Metro Station (Digital Album)

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Metro Station

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Among so many of today's bands that lack dynamics, determination and over all fun, the debut from L.A's Metro Station succeeds in every way.

Having seen the band live, I am pleased to report THIS IS WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE!

Got it? Good...i feel better too.

Speaking of sound, it is difficult to pinpoint the synth-pop/pop-rock/rock-rock-and more-rock label as "EMO" becomes a vague cliché the same way "Trip-Hop" did in the 90's. Just listen and make up a cool new category later.

A welcome surprise is how many songs feature elements from the band's original MySpace demos... no wonder they got the album out so soon (Hey look! Non-manufactured talent!).

Talent...and yeah two band members are "not of drinking age" to quote numerous bios but they are not kids either.

The album is paced very evenly (throw it on at your next party and see what happens) and by the closer "Disco", still feels fresh with adrenaline.

Without irony i will say Metro Station rock and ROCK much better than any of y'know, most of those guys who can drink an' stuff.

Wow. I was not expecting this. At all.

I took a chance on this album after hearing one of their big hits, Shake It, on the local alt-radio station. I didn't really love it, but it was good to hear something I've had almost no exposure to (I'm just going to call it "digi-rock", and I recommend that you do as well). Usually when I take a chance like this, it turns out to be a good gamble (Mobile Estates, You Can't Stop The Bum Rush, Diesel and Dust, A Slight Case of Overbombing). There have been a few so-so albums, but nothing really disastrous.

And then I got Metro Station, and it just about blew me away. I've never seen such a mixture of hot and cold, good and bad, great and terrible in a single album:

***** - The music. Part rock, part, er, "electronica" (ugh), part plain 'ol pop, part teenybopper, just a hint of angst...a little of everything. And it works: As Enya showed us repeatedly, put enough work on the technical side and even a mediocre song can sound great. This is just plain fun to listen and dance to, and I can easily play it from front to back.

**** - Lively, energetic, cheerful. A winning combination any day, and pretty much the only thing preventing Shake It from getting annoying. These teens are living happy and proud of it.

*** - Subject matter. Good overview of modern teen life, but doesn't really dig deep and plays it *really* safe with the lyrics. ("No, it's not about sex, it's about...er...getting dressed for a date!") Don't really care much either way about this.

** - Short, short, short. By far the least content I've ever seen in a commercially released album (and the other reason I can easily play it from front to back...sometimes it doesn't even last the work commute). There's nothing wrong with an occasional short track, but a complete inability to go beyond 3:20 points at a decided lack of creativity, or worse, sheer laziness. If they're going to have any success, they need to break out of this rut, and fast.

* - TOO REPETITIVE! Shake It is the worst case, of course, but you hear the numbing repetitiveness here from beginning to end. Add in plenty of filler words ("Whooo-ooooa!"), and you're left with an entire album with hardly any substance.

Metro Station looks to be in the same boat as Len was after You Can't Stop The Bum Rush. It's great to play around and have fun with the debut album, but unless they pick a viable commercial route, and fast, they're going to crash and burn. Club techno? They're going to have to figure out how to stretch a song to to 4, 5, and even 10 minutes. Mainstream pop? Better lyrics, more variety in the tempos and harmonies. Full-bore punk? They have to *get* angry. And so on.

This is the first time I've ever actively hoped a band releases a second album...because this *can't* be it. C'mon, guys, what else ya got?