Formentera II

Releasing two separate albums from the same cache of material in relatively quick succession is always a risky move, as it can suggest the songs in the second batch are leftovers that weren’t quite strong enough to make the cut on the first. But in Metric’s case, the life-altering effects of the pandemic—and the wealth of music they produced while holed up in their small-town Ontario studio—demanded an expanded canvas to catalog the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that define our early-2020s existence. After charting their journey out of lockdown and into the light on 2022’s *Formentera*, the synth-rockers have issued a sequel that crystallizes that uncanny mix of celebration and “now what?” introspection that awaits us on the other side. As such, *Formentera II* isn’t so much a linear continuation of its predecessor as a reverse-negative mirror image of it. Where the first installment forced listeners to contend with the intimidating electro-prog colossus “Doomscroller” before gradually chasing the dark clouds away, *Formentera II* welcomes you in with the instantly alluring glitter-ball grooves of “Detour Up” and “Just the Once” en route to the disorienting digital beats of “Descendants.” But in between those poles, *Formentera II* asserts a character all its own by teasing out the vintage glam-rock DNA that’s always been bubbling under Metric’s futurist sheen, as frontperson Emily Haines leads us out of the discotheque and into the stratosphere on stardust-sprinkled serenades like “Days of Oblivion” and “Who Would You Be for Me.”