Metric is pure style. Looks, mood, content and experience, it’s about a haunting lyric that resonates or an impossibly catchy hook. The Toronto band’s impeccable retro glam is largely due to the ultra-hip, sixties Factory image of frontwoman Emily Haines, whose solo work and collaborations with Broken Social Scene have sometimes eclipsed the Metric project. Yet Metric is in many ways better known and more beloved, and for those who’ve caught on it’s like a best kept secret. Metric’s first album, Grow Up and Blow Away, was a sleeper hit (originally recorded in 1999, Grow Up and Blow Away has previously been sold only at Metric shows) and, like the best sleepers, its re-release this year is like a brand new occasion. For audiences more familiar with the band’s commercial debut, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (Everloving) or the last release, 2005’s Live it Out (Last Gang), it’s easy to hear the evolution of Metric’s sound by listening to this earlier stuff. It’s much more reminiscent of Haines’ solo work (like 2006’s Knives Don’t Have Your Back), which showcases eclectic indie vocals and ambient sounds over the bumpin’ synth-rock Metric is best known for. With a previously unrealeased new Metric album supposedly in the works, Haines seems to be branching out in numerous directions, with a soulful style like Amy Winehouse, the poetic vein of Feist, the club-kid camp of Dee-Lite (with so much more talent) and a whole lot of Annie Lennox in the mix. (The Eurythmics are the band Metric is most often compared to). Innovative Toronto-based eight piece Crystal Castles is supporting Metric throughout this tour.

Saturday, September 22 at 8pm. The Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900/www.townballroom.com).

$16/advance (box office, New World Record, Tickets.com) or $18/at the door