Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton Album: “Knives Don't Have Your Back [Digipak]”

This is from the perspective of someone who hasn't heard Metric's music before. I am a huge fan of women soloists, tori amos, cat power, beth gibbons, vienna teng, bjork, pj harvey, etc.. and i have to say i havn't herad anything quite like this album. If you like meloncholy female pianists, you should definately suport this woman. "Knives Don't Have Your Back" is very melodic, very stark, humble, and quite poetic. The album is fairly quiet for the most part, but there are some lively and awesome band moments too, mostly in the first half, as in "Mostly Waving" with a hip brass section. "Doctor Blind" is another vibrant favorite. Each song is catchy enough to stand out, even the ones at the end, after a few listens, but there is still a definate unity between all the songs, despite them being written throughout the course of her life. A friend lent this to me and after one listen i was completely addicted. The only song i didn't think was as good as the rest was "lottery", though it's not a bad song, I just don't get what she's really trying to express when she refers "sexual suicide is a new crime, lets commit it". Overall her lyrics are both fresh and familiar, "...rather give the world away than wake up lonely.","she calls around finds me crying, wish i was capable of lying sometimes" Other favorites are "Crowd Surf Off a Cliff" and "Reading in Bed".

This album has a place next to the best of them.

OK, I really love this record. Some of it's pretty sad, all of it's pretty beautiful, and the best part- 100% Emily Haines. If she isn't the most creative, talented, artistic person making music in the alt/rock world, I don't know who is. Warning, repeated listening may cause depression in the thoughtful or weak of heart!

As far as other reviews calling metric's music, "consistent" I have to disagree, and I think this work is very similar to the early, out of print hard to find metric music. That early stuff shares little with their reformatted approach since Old World Underground. If you've heard the Metric track 'Butcher," this CD's sound will be familiar- esoteric poetic lyrics set to somewhat stark melodic music. So think Metric, Part I, and this music WILL be familiar.

Digging deeper yet, Emily's father's influence is naturally present in everything she does, and in this record's case, she's not even tried to hide that fact. Just compare this album's packaging with her Father's work with Carla Bley on "Escalator Over the Hill." If you're an Emily Haines fan, you may seriously want to study up- it'll be worth it!

I haven't actually heard Emily Haines in her original band, so I can't compare, but this album is beautiful. The songs stay in your head for days after listening, and she puts tons of emotion without the slightest trace of cheese or saccharine. The lyrics move effortlessly from sarcasm to longing to anger to sadness, but somehow never becoming overly melodramatic.

This artist was suggested by Pandora and I have to say that I love it.

My favorite part of any thing she's a part of (Metric, Broken Social Scene, and Stars) is Emily Haines. She has a killer voice and writes excellent lyrics. I love every track on this album. If you haven't heard her solo stuff before (or even if you have) and enjoy any of the above bands, don't hesitate making this purchase.