Sounding like a retread of Metric‘s past at first, Romanticize the Dive gets better the more patience you have for the music’s beauty to unfurl.
Release date: April 24, 2026 | Thirty Tigers | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Website
For more than two decades, Canadian rock exports Metric have been quietly lighting up the indie dancefloor. Classic songs such as “Combat Baby”, “Help I’m Alive”, and “Black Sheep” have been instrumental in their success over the years, melding pop hooks and indie rock structure seamlessly with new wave-informed electronics. Yet their biggest calling card in the independent music world happens to be their remarkable consistency across albums. Each album of theirs certainly follows a template, but that template tends to mature and experiment just enough for each follow-up. Metric fans, of course, know this and are likely to rightfully consider them underrated. I’ve seen this all the time on online forums.
I won’t lie, though. When I first listened to Romanticize the Dive, already Metric‘s tenth LP, it was underwhelming. It took me a few more listens to come around to the sentiment that RTD is deceptively catchy, just obscured a bit by less-than-stellar production and some relatively dull tracks when compared to the other material. Those dull tracks are the album’s two longest songs, with those being the clunky “Crush Forever” and disappointingly safe “Clouds To Break”. Likewise, I’m not a huge fan of the sound of this record’s drums and percussion, and synthetic vocal effects on cuts like “Wild Rut” stick out like a sore thumb.
Luckily, there are many more positive things to say about RTD than there are negative. Described by Metric frontwoman Emily Haines as a return to ‘the essence of who we are’ in an interview with NME, it’s actually less of a retread and more an expansion of their 2000s-era style. There are a ton (perhaps even a metric ton) of satisfying melodies, hooks, chords, and lyrical tidbits to be uncovered within these eleven numbers. Bookends “Victim Of Luck” and “Leave You On A High” stand the tallest, holding together the other nine songs with a tight, cohesive quality.
Metric‘s kinetic, yet often times cryptic, songwriting is the silver lining of Romanticize the Dive. In spite of the lack of punchier drums or more pronounced bass parts, the craft of this creation as a whole cannot go unnoticed. A song like “Tremolo”, for instance, excels at instrumental and sonic variety, a kick drum and tambourine-heavy groove boasting melancholic synth layers. “Antigravity” pulls from 1980s post-punk for its beat as well as the chorus–an impenetrable haze of The Cure-adjacent guitars and nocturnal pads. These sorts of atmospheric touches show up on other cool songs, too, emphasizing the wistfulness and introspection of “As If You’re Here”, but it’s “Leave You On A High” that is the album’s most beautiful musical moment for me.
I don’t know what it is exactly about this tune, but I’ve been loving this one ever since the first time I heard it. Heavenly electric guitar chimes over stadium-indie drumming makes Metric sound more grandiose than ever. Best of all, with this as a closer, the magic of the entire album’s composition is truly felt. Even back when I didn’t really get the album’s overall mission statement, this was one track that convinced me that this album was worth a second chance. Sounding like a retread at first, Romanticize the Dive gets better the more patience you have for the beauty of Metric‘s music to unfurl, however underrated it may be.
