Off Topic: Emily Haines and her Gift to the World

My iTunes library has just recently passed the 51 day point, and I will soon have 20,000 songs (right now I'm hovering just under at 19,745).  I'll admit that a good portion of that isn't from CD's or the iTunes store, but when I hear a catchy song I have this desire to be able to listen to it over and over.  That's not to say that I never buy a CD; I do most of my  purchasing at the various shows I attend, and I have quite a collection of band memorabilia (t-shirts and such) and ticket stubs.  I guess my point is that I don't mind spending my money on good music (and please note that there is a very thick black line between "catchy" and "good").

Back to my original train of thought - of those 19,745 songs, I have to admit that only a generous handful of them were ever at once considered my favorite (probably something like 1 or 2%, if that).  When I do find the "next greatest thing" in my opinion, I take it upon myself to make sure everyone I come into contact with knows about it.  My tastes change a little every year, but one band that has constantly been my "favorite" is a band from Canada/New York called Metric.

Metric produces mainly rock music, but there's an occasional synthesizer-heavy dance track on their albums.  They have been in the studio for the past few months (read: freaking eternity) working on their art, and recently (apparently) lead singer Emily Haines has been in South America doing a little song writing.  And finally, according to their official website (www.ilovemetric.com), they have finished up recording their new album.

Long story short (I probably will start to say that too much if I haven't already) they released an unofficial single to a radio station in Canada (lucky northerners; they don't know how good they have it!) and I just happened to be lucky enough to find it on the World Wide Web.  It's called "Help, I'm Alive" and while it's a little different from their more recent punk-infused guitar-heavy very pop-sounding songs, it certainly wonderful to hear Emily back at what she does best.  It sounds like it could almost be a B-Side from Old World Underground, Where Are you Now? (their first official album) in tone, but it showcases a more confident and matured Haines while retaining that Metric flavor.

Anyway it's certainly worth checking out, and I apologize for cluttering up this "tech review" blog with a personal rant. Cheers!