Every year seems to be going by quicker than the last, yet nothing could have prepared me for this year’s arrival of Metronomy’s Greatest Hits. Tracking two whole decades since the release of their debut album, our indie-electronica faves have also given us 17 live sessions from previous performances across BBC’s radio stations over the years, including ‘The Look’ and ‘On Dancefloors’. The whole package comes complete with artwork that incorporates elements of all seven studio albums from 2005’s Pip Paine (Pay the £5000 You Owe) to 2022’s Small World.
While picking out great Metronomy tunes is no hard task, whittling it down to one compilation cannot have been easy. Even asking fellow fans for the first track that comes to mind resulted in a range of answers, and only most of them made the cut. I am quite surprised that ‘Radio Ladio’ does not crop up in the Greatest Hits, but when you look at the distribution of albums across the 20 tracks it only highlights the amount of bangers this band has produced. The earliest hits to make the compilation are Pip Paine’s ‘You Could Easily Have Me’, a rugged and rhythmic instrumental which closed the sets each night on their last (for now, hopefully) tour, a huge highlight to hear live at Alexandra Palace. We also have the bedroom electro pop feel of ‘This could be beautiful (it is)’. Two vastly different sounds on one album, we knew from the beginning that this band would keep us on our toes from the get go. Top hitting albums overall are 2011’s The English Riviera and 2019’s Metronomy Forever, with four songs each. I personally might have traded one of those Metronomy Forever songs for ‘Radio Ladio’, particularly with 2008’s Nights Out being my favourite of all their albums, but I certainly can’t argue with tracks like ‘Heartbreaker’ (shout out to the French version of this song too, I might even like that one more), ‘A Thing For Me’ and ‘My Heart Rate Rapid’ taking its spot. I am also very happy to see ‘On Dancefloors’ getting its time to shine on the live sessions part of the album. The whiny little indie disco number is and always will be close to my heart.
‘A Thing For Me’ will always be the one that started my obsession, after yet another night of my brother and I browsing the music channels on TV as teenagers. The fun video and their particular fusion of indie rock, pop and electronica piqued my interest, and they are one of few bands from the 00s that remain a core favourite of mine today.
There absolutely could not be a Greatest Hits without the likes of ‘The Bay’ and ‘The Look’, as well as ‘Love Letters’ and ‘I’m Aquarius’, but let’s not also forget the more understated likes of ‘Corinne’, ‘Everything Goes My Way’ and ‘Reservoir’. While I have not forgotten these songs over time, it truly is a treat to have the creme de la creme all in one album as a reminder of just how great and diverse Metronomy are. We also get a glimpse of 2016’s Summer 08, with singles ‘Old Skool’ and ‘Night Owl’. Giving a deep groove-pop feel, it feels a little like a sad summer album, a juxtaposition that I never fully appreciated until later on. Then came Metronomy Forever in 2019. I remember attending a listening party for this at the local record store and feeling like it was a new direction entirely. Throw the moody, yet still optimistic tone of ‘The Light’ in with the silly fun of ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ just to keep everyone guessing, right?
Small World followed in 2022, a much more lowkey side to the band, blissed out and whimsical. Overall it came almost with a sense of feeling like the end is nigh with retrospective themes that also looked to the future. Perhaps now with Greatest Hits in our hands, it could be closer than we think, but even the band themselves don’t seem so sure. Stating on Instagram “it isn’t the end, just the end of the beginning…I mean the beginning of the end”, Metronomy have also been releasing new remixes and showing an assured interest in continuing to make music in some form. I guess the one thing we do know for certain is that one way or another, Metronomy really can only be forever.
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