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"Art of Doubt" is the seventh studio album by Canadian indie rock band Metric, which was released on 21 September 2018 through Metric Music International.
Art of Doubt was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and recorded at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles, and at Metric's own studio, Giant Studio in Toronto. The album design and cover are designed by longtime Metric collaborator Justin Broadbent.
Art of Doubt received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
User Album Review
Toronto-based alt-rockers Metric have returned with their seventh studio album, Art of Doubt. The band mostly steer away from the synth-centric style of their previous record, Pagans in Vegas, but with mixed results.
Art of Doubt is an improvement from their previous endeavor, which was a rather bland foray into a synthetic landscape. And this album’s best moments are its guitar-based tracks. Opener “Dark Saturday” is a standout that’s reminiscent of late ’90s alternative, and frontwoman Emily Haines’ vocals evoke Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O.
“Dressed to Suppress”, the record’s second single, is also fueled by guitars and one of Haines’ best vocal performances on the album. It’s also one of the more interesting tracks on a lyrical level, touching on topics such as performative happiness and the conflict that can come packaged with the search for love.
Art of Doubt feels inconsistent in its stylistic approach, as well. It ranges from bubbly synth-pop on “Now or Never Now” to an ominous thrasher just one track later to “Underline the Black”, one of the album’s few songs in a major key that’s suggestive of 2012’s Synthetica. Perhaps Metric were attempting to make a record that explores a variety of sounds, but it comes off more as unfocused than genre-bending.
Reviewed by Grant Sharples for consequenceofsound.net.
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