Rating:
  Review Date: October 27, 2008
  Website: Metermaids Website
  Label: 27 Sound Entertainment, Inc.

Metermaids “Nightlife” Album Review
The Metermaids are made up of two emcees, Sentence and Swell, who give one of the best live performances in the NYC underground. The past couple of years, I’ve constantly found myself at shows they’ve opened – and have been so impressed that I’ve now become a regular at shows they’re headlining as well. So when I got my hands on their album “Nightlife,” I just knew it was going to be dope.

Why I Like This Album:

1. This album is catchy as a motherfucker, man! With “Nightlife,” the Metermaids have created fourteen tracks of entertaining, feel-good, sing-a-long hip-hop that provides a great listen from start to finish. These cats simply know how to write good hooks and choruses. For the past week, I’ve listened to this album on my two 45-minute train rides to and from work every day, and I can never get the last song I hear out of my head for hours after. Tracks like Come Home, Good Times, Feel Alive, Risk You Run just make you want to sing along. “Nightlife” manages to grab your attention with virtually every track.

2. This album makes me feel like I’m at a concert. “Nightlife” is the perfect title to this collection of songs. Over half of the tracks seem to have been created with a live performance vibe in mind, and listening to this album gives me the feeling of a Saturday night in the basement of some NYC venue. It kinda serves the same escapist purpose of a weekend concert, helping to remove you from the stresses of the day and put a smile on your face. Tracks like The Inside, Breakdown, Love Is Back, No Matter What and Fingertips all create audience or listener participation with interactive choruses and hooks.

3. Impressive lyrical exchanges. Some duos just have that chemistry: Andre and Big Boi; Kweli and Mos; Black Thought and Malik B. Sentence and Swell of the Metermaids demonstrate amazing energetic back-and-forths throughout the course of “Nightlife,” both by exchanging verses and sharing them. The following verse from Good Times shows the duo’s ability to mesh their styles together and create a flowing lyrical exchange:

[Sentence] Chose the distilled life, cheap booze and Sudafed/
Just trying to make the unsuccessful look cool again/
[Swell] Say it loud ‘Ohhh it’s him!’ and we won’t worry about the background/
Yeah I been around the country, it sucks, I’m back now/
[Sentence] Assed out sitting in the office went to college/
For six years to work retail with fifty other artists/
[Swell] And the week just started, so I’m steadily keeping my head down/
But even in my daydreams I’m ready for that let down/
[Sentence] Inner voice screaming ‘What were you thinkin’?’/
Life is not a sequence of never-ending weekends/
[Swell] And silly games of me ‘Yo I’ll be the rap star/
She’ll be my girlfriend and we’ll be rich’ – the end/
[Sentence] Thinking it’ll be rugged but, fuck, not as real as this/
Heads like, ‘You’re an artist, man, you’re supposed to feel like shit!’/
[Swell] Finally something I got down, get the campaign to pop – blaaaw!/
‘Sean man you want some?’ Nah not now, I’m tired/

4. Personable verses. Despite the abundance of more party-style joints on this album, the Metermaids manage to drop a handful of personable verses that let the listener in on real life thoughts and feelings of the emcees. And both Sentence and Swell do this pretty successfully. Tracks like Think About It, Never Far and Life Is Easy are just some good heartfelt hip-hop tracks. I felt that both emcees dropped their best verses on Think About It, where they each analyze their situations:

Swell verse:
So much to say in such a short time/
It’s hard to pick the four lines/
To wrap into packages delivered at your door sign/
Like of course things have changed no matter how hard grip the details/
But I’ma keep it major so that the bigger picture prevails/
Brian got jumped so now you’re smoking again/
Quit quitting when the anger turned into the new depression/
And Molly’s up at college, kinda hard to believe/
And mom and pops are doing great, you see them every two weeks/
You’re still with Suzy – live in a one bedroom in Brooklyn/
You do the cleanin’ while she does the cookin’/
You got a dog and a cat, you a whole little family/
That makes home something fun that you could come back to/
And the crew’s thinned out a bit not from lack of love/
But you’ve always talked a big one, now it’s time to back it up/
So here we are – a quarter century’s test/
And for the first time in your life you could say you did your best/

Sentence verse:
You never found with your eyes well, bouncing through bars/
Take a deep breath – the paint, the smog, the clouds and exhaust/
So keep the chain swinging, ride against your paw/
Take the road less compatible then cram it in a song/
‘Cause they’re not gonna pay, stay rockin’ pockets of change/
But know when to call the game ‘cause bathroom floors are all the same/
And it ain’t glamorous to play the saint, the sinner and the Lazarus/
Sometimes leave that passion in the kitchen drawer where the matches is/
Your friends will die and take their lives and overdose/
And when you see your dysfunctional family once a year just hold ‘em close/
‘Cause you’re a fighter – at least you still say that in your head/
And yes Sentence, you guessed it, he’s too stressed to pay the rent/
But it’s all peace – you packed up your girl and moved out east/
And every day you either write or work on four hours of sleep/
You been all over the country making music with your friends/
So keep doing what you’re doing ‘cause I’d do it all again/

Overall: Definitely worth picking up. “Nightlife” is easily one of the standout unique, fun, and comprehensive underground hip-hop releases of the year. Favorite tracks include Come Home, Risk You Run, Good Times, Think About It, The Inside. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. The Inside
2. Breakdown
3. Come Home
4. Good Times
5. The Love Is Back
6. Feel Alive
7. The Risk You Run
8. Funk Terrorist
9. No Matter What
10. Think About It
11. Fingertips
12. Shame
13. Nightlife
14. Life Is Easy