3/5: Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton debut with a moody, hypnotic album called Knives Don't Have Your Back. It is a respectable solo premier for the Metric singer.
For listeners who are not fans of Emily Haines’ previous work with bands like Metric and Broken Social Scene may be pleasantly surprised with her solo debut. For lack of a better word, her new album leans much closer to folk than indie rock.
Along with her backing band, The Soft Skeleton, Haines has produced a record that truly allows her talents as a vocalist and pianist come to the forefront. The majority of songs on the wittily titled, Knives Don’t Have Your Back, revolve around her vamping keyboard progressions and wispy, little girl voice. The effect presents listeners with a collection of tracks that veer from moody and dark to witty and sprightly.
For example, “Our Hell,” the album’s opening track, sets a distinctly melancholy tone. As the song slowly builds in intensity, Haines’ chopping piano settles into a strong groove. Here, her writing possesses a dark humor as she sings, “Our hell is a good life.” As a result, the audience is immediately plunged into a world of self-aware angst.
This can be a slippery slope for a musician, but Haines admirably strikes a musical posture that comes across as introspective rather than preachy.
On “Crowd Surf Off a Cliff,” one of the album’s best cuts, her reverb-laden voice and cycling piano part easily hypnotizes the listener. This combination produces a general mood that could easily cause one to overlook the subtle poetry of this composition, with its complex imagery of reckless abandon and impending doom.
Unfortunately, Haines’ tendency to incorporate scaled-down elements of hard rock and dance music may not please some less-hardy sets of folk ears. In addition, this album’s major fault is its lack of musical variety or diversity in its song styles.
The album has a distinct mood, but if that mood does not appeal to a person or coincide with a particular mindset than this record could easily be put aside.
Nevertheless, Knives Don’t Have Your Back is more than a respectable first effort. Haines proves that she is a song-writing force to be reckoned with, and someone who will continue to produce quality music well into the future.
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