13. Metric - IOU

It's a sad reflection of the modern day music business that there are so few 'current' artists in my all time fifty, so it's a treat for me to present Metric as high in the chart as number 13. It's the voice that does it for me. Emily Haines has an individual singing style and gorgeous accent that combine to make even the most random lyrics sound profound and beautiful.

She's equally at home singing the Metric brand of indie rock or the more laid back and introspective numbers in her solo incarnation with the Soft Skeleton. I was in two minds which way to go with the selection, but in the end I had to go for a Metric song as they have provided my with so much pleasure over the last few years. Having said that I have certain reservations about the lyrical content of their records as I have no idea whatsoever what they are talking about. Needless to say Emily always pulls it round with her vocal chords and for the duration of each song it all seems to make perfect sense.

'IOU' is the perfect example, with a seemingly ramshackle and random collection of words, ideas and phrases converted into a masterpiece with the mere flexing of the Haines tonsils and an injection of that accent. She's up there with Eliza Carthy for me as the best folk/rock singer of this generation and with a new album out this year I'm already starting to hyperventilate with anticipation.