By Sujin Thomas

Metric - Fantasies (Love Da Music) - Rating: 4.5/5

BANDS like Metric always catch you unawares.

It's been four years since the band's last album, and it has resurfaced with an electro-pop zinger that knocks you out.

Fantasies, as Metric aptly calls its fourth album, is packed with dizzying hard-hitting numbers as well as gentle charmers.

The record was even shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize, which is awarded annually to the best Canadian album.

Inspirations are drawn from far and wide. After all, the quartet have uprooted themselves from their base in Toronto to live in cities like Montreal, London and New York.

Not everything is as electronically charged as you may think.

Twilight Galaxy shines a spotlight on singer Emily Haines' frosty vocals while guitarist James Shaw evokes dreamy ambience.

Both Haines and Shaw, like their counterparts in fellow Canadian indie pop band Stars, are also known for their work with crowded collective Broken Social Scene.

But as Metric, they have gone the extra mile.

Help, I'm Alive is the album's clincher. It's a hypnotising track with pounding drum rhythms and subtle industrial hammering as Haines chants: "My heart keeps beating like a hammer."

However, the album does suffer from a minor glitch: Odd pacing. Tracks with a pop feel, like Collect Call, are interspersed with headbangers like Front Row. Whether this was intended or mere happenstance, all is easily forgiven.

Stars and Broken Social Scene have dazzled audiences in packed concert venues here. Perhaps it's time for gig organisers to give Metric its day in the sun too.