Singer/synth specialist Emily Haines along with guitarist James Shaw have been writing music together for twelve years as Metric. Before forming the group Haines had been writing lyrics for some time, while Shaw had been writing instrumentals and chord progressions. When they became musically involved, one of the results when they pieced the two was ‘butcher’. It’s slow, deprived and depressing feel really pulls me in.
In this song, unlike many of their others (which is a shame), they really take advantage of Haines’ compassionate and mood provoking singing ability. I can feel the deprivation and sadness behind her voice like she’s singing lyrics that have a personal meaning. The song begins with the repetition of two downtempo-unusual sounding chords. At the moment Haines begin to sing, another layer played by a flute begins to play every other note along with the piano. The two combined add a certain harmony to the song and add to the existing meter (hard piano note – flute holds note – piano plays a few notes followed by another hard piano note – flute holds new note etc.). The vocals fall into the pattern of going hard then soft then hard, and at times it sounds like the flute is changing with them as well, although it is hard for me to tell. We get a cool sounding contrast around twenty-four seconds when the vocals temporarily increase in pitch. These subtle but powerful nuances cause this very slow tempo song to keep my attention as a listener. It’s not until a minute into the song when three new layers are introduced; a base guitar, and what sounds like a couple of trumpets (flute ends, piano stops playing filler notes). The new layers, however, follow the same melody of the prior two layers. This is a really cool effect because essentially the melody remains the same but the timbre and mood change. Furthermore, what may attract me to this song is that I love trumpet. When used correctly is adds a new level to any song. Quite a surprise from the New Wave electric band (although they did come from Montreal - notorious for musical diversity). About half-way through the tempo increases slightly, a drum beat is added and the flute makes another appearance - although I still have not lost the emotional connection to the lyrics and mood about the instrumentals.
The instrumentals and organization are fantastic, however, this review would not be complete without some lyrical analysis. I feel a lot of emotion and deep feelings were put into them. Who is this song directed to? It appears as though Haines is switching from a first person perspective where she is talking to a lover, "you're so handsome in this light", to her own thoughts, "If only you'd reject me tonight". The first line, “your so handsome in this light”, speaks to me like “I love you but I want to cut my ties and see what else is out there”, “we’re so boring, we’re so white”. “neglect the flesh to pursue the bone” (such a powerful line) – the character is doing what they truly feel to be right - whatever that may be is up for interpretaion. The characters have had a long, but good relationship that the speaker wishes to end. They reflect on their actions by coming to the resolve; “Learn to bend, learn to butcher, make amends and do it over again”, such a straightforward, compelling, powerful, and deeply emotional line – I absolutely love it. The speaker relates their current life to white and boring and expresses that they believe they could be brown and homely. Whether Haines is writing from her own experiences I do not know, but I can feel the feeling invested. Having said all this, I can’t make out the sense in the last line, “do it over”, what could she be referring to? The relationship has ended, the protagonist has their reason: maybe it means that they believe all relationships will end boring and white, while they once thought they would feel wholesome and brown, and the final line is them progressing to thinking about life as some dull, ceasless factuality.
This song has attracted me to the band, and to a genre I otherwise would not have been interested in. Haines writes poetically and emotionally which makes this a great song to listen to in a quiet space with the headphones on. Her writing ability is equally matched with James Shaw's musical prowess which makes for awesome chemistry in a band.
