MMI/Mom+Pop

If you’ve seen Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s buffed-chrome LA thriller Drive, then you’ve got a conceptual jump on Metric’s latest album. “A Real Hero,” which features the chillwavy vocals of Toronto-based duo Electric Youth, is the sleek center of that film’s score – and a faint reminder of the dystopian electrofuture that Metric lead singer Emily Haines portrays on Synthetica. From the tech-rocker “Youth Without Youth” to the tearful and trippy “Clone,” Haines can sound, by turns, deeply human and vaguely humanoid, her supple voice tracing a wide arc of characters that convey love, wonder, ecstasy, malaise and menace with equal weight (and at times, equal detachment). Through it all, the band – guitarist James Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key – gives her the foundation she needs, synthesizers and vocal filters at the ready, to stretch out further than ever.