Metric lights up and lets loose in their 'Youth Without Youth' video.

We've all been warned not to play with fire, but when Metric's Emily Haines does in the video "Youth Without Youth" it ignites some powerful, heady sociopolitical messages atop fuzzed-out electro-rocking melodies and rhythms. And, unsurprisingly, while doing so, she manages to look so smoldering she pretty much upstages fire. (Excuse us while we Emily Haines Stans fan the flames over here.)

The video opens with a stomping, strutty beat that ushers in Haines, who's flicking lighters. In a drably colored room, back-in-the-day childhood imagery is juxtaposed with more violent material, mirroring the song's sentiment. There's a girl building a multi-tiered birthday cake, a bunny rabbit, a stuffed animal and football (clear eyes, full hearts, baby!), all interspersed with guns (boo!), handcuffs (boo!) and grenade (boo!). "Youth without youth, born without time," Haines sultrily sings. "Youth without youth, can you read my mind?"

In a recent interview posted to SoundCloud, Emily said that the track's inspiration "started as just one verse, a story -- a very slow, sad story about the decaying social state through the eyes of a depraved child," and the song grew from there. The lyrics trace innocence lost as childlike games grow into teenaged trouble, and these words are buoyed by a glammy, sleazy, danceable sound. Is there any better way to get through this sociopolitical climate than to dance through the melancholy? We think not.

"Youth Without Youth" is the first single from Metric's fifth album, Synthetica, out now.

+ Watch Metric's "Youth Without Youth" video: