Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Knives Don’t Have Your Back (Last Gang)
4/5
By: Michael Cragg
Sometimes music is at its best when it roars out of the speakers, all clattering drums and primal guitars. Other times it could be an insistent beat or a keyboard riff you can't get out of your head. Occasionally, music can creep up on you and rather then hammer on your head for attention it just floats around you, inconspicuous almost. 'Our Hill', the first track on 'Knives Don't Have Your Back', is one of those moments. As a beautiful piano melody drifts out of the speakers you can't help but stop what you're doing and listen, and as the voice rises up from nowhere it's breathtaking.
You may know Emily Haines as the front-woman for Metric and Broken Social Scene, or you may never have heard of her before at all. Either way, along with her band The Soft Skeleton, she has crafted an intimate, often languid dream of a debut, that settles somewhere between fellow Broken Social Scene acolyte Feist and a more reflective Cat Power.
Whilst the majority of the album does lean towards the piano and subtle backing, it's on tracks such as 'Detective Daughter' and 'The Lottery' that Haines stretches her wings, incorporating discordant guitar and beats. Sparklehorse's Scott Minor guests on the album and it's perhaps that band's influence that hangs most prominently over proceedings, with each song treading the line between beautiful and slightly spooky, most noticeably on the brilliant 'Mostly Waving'.
'Knives Don't Have Your Back' is a charming, subtle record made for Sunday mornings and late nights. Given the right support Emily Haines could sell a lot more records then she does, and yet her music seems to suit being on the outside looking in. Her website claims that a new album is on its way in less then a month; it couldn't come sooner.
Download an MP3 of 'Doctor Blind' from 'Knives Don't Have Your Back' HERE.
Artists in this article: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
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