AMG EXPERT REVIEW: With their fuzzy production, sharp hooks and naive approach, Metropolitan comes across as a snottier Teenage Fanclub. The two bands have a lot in common, but most importantly they can take dissonant guitar and ugly production and craft sweet pop songs out of all the noise. Tracks like "Long Distance Dedication" have hooks that burrow deep into your brain while the band bangs away at their instruments like they were Fugazi. This yin and yang to their sound is a great mix, making the obvious Fanclub comparisons seem pretty accurate because both bands also have the ability to pull it off. Like a DC hardcore band trapped in a room full of pillows, Metropolitan delivers the goods for wide-eyed pop lovers and angst-filled feedback fanatics alike. — Bradley Torreano

Any list of Metropolitan's influences would be incomplete without mentioning the band's main muse: Arlington County. Its new LP, Down for You Is Up, leads off with a track named for an exit off I-66; the video shows guitarist John Masters, bassist Shyam Telikicherla, and drummer Saadat Awan lovingly taking in Arlington's shabby gentility while trying to make a gig at the Court House Metro stop. More seriously, Metropolitan thinks locally by following the example of county forefathers Unrest and incorporating keen British influences such as New Order and Teenage Fanclub into its spiky American guitar rock. "Westmoreland" bubbles along on the back of Telikicherla's perky bass line and Masters' about-a-girl lyrics like "Blue Monday" in a thrift-store T-shirt; "This Real" salts wistful, Scottish-style power pop with Masters' uniformly terrific, J Mascis–influenced guitar tone. Despite being only about half an hour long, Down for You Is Up shows some classy diversity, interpolating five out-there band doodles between its nine "real" songs, and on "Girl From Montpelier," Awan spells Masters on guitar and vocals while the band lays down a slinky harmonium-and-tablas groove. Still, Metropolitan's forte is classic drums-bass-guitar stuff, such as the album-closing "Wet Cigarette." At the end of that song, someone in the group chides Masters for drawing out the coda too long. "I know tha-at!" he sings. "But I was into it!" Like a waitress at a Columbia Pike diner, he couldn't help but top off your cup.

Once the home of labels TeenBeat and Simple Machines, indie-rock's heyday lives on in Arlington, VA.'s current crop of pop bands, and leading the way perhaps, is the three-piece Metropolitan. Saadat Awan, Shyam Telikicherla, and John Masters have a solid rock sound that combines youthful energy and a good ear for vocal-driven melodies. John Masters' vocals, emotive and just a tad snotty, suck you in on songs like "Slide Rule," "You Want It," and "Incidental." Musically, Metropolitan refrains from composing outside the realm of what is expected from a pop trio of bass, drums, and guitar. Despite their devotion to Sonic Youth and Television, the end result of their collaboration is more akin to your everyday neighborhood garage band. While some bands belong in the basement, Metropolitan's heart is just too big to be restrained and their tunes just too infectious to ignore. While some contemporary pop bands try to sound too much like one old band or the other, Metropolitan uniquely blends many old favorites into one cohesive mix that effectively revives the optimistic mood of the early '90s.