CD Reviews

Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton

Knives Don’t Have Your Back | Last Gang

By JEFF BREEZE | November 28, 2006

3.0 Stars

This solo debut from Metric frontwoman Emily Haines is a big departure for the Toronto-based art-school graduate. Whereas Metric typically create soundtracks for a night of sweaty dance-floor exuberance, Knives Don’t Have Your Back is more like a musical backdrop for a late-night walk home after the person that you’ve been dancing up against has split with someone else. Melancholy lyrics are nestled over somber ballads, and that leaves Haines plenty of room to connect with images like “Crowd surf off a cliff/Land out on the ice” and “Numb is the new high/All our memories die out until nothing and no one is golden.” She does get minimal accompaniment from Scott Minor of Sparklehorse, Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene, Evan Cranley of Stars, and her Metric band mate James Shaw, but the emphasis is on Haines’s piano and voice. The disc was recorded over the course of four years in six different cities when she wasn’t busy with other projects, but the results unfold like a well-plotted novel. Indeed, the disc is packaged like a book, with a full complement of images and lyrics — lyrics that establish Haines as an independent soul.

Related: Spring break, Broken Social Scenester, Going on sale: August 1, 2008, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Broken Social Scene, Sparklehorse, Justin Peroff, More

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Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton, "Doctor Blind" (mp3)

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