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Knives Don't Have Your Back | ||||
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Studio album by Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton | ||||
Released | September 19, 2006 [1] | |||
Recorded | 2005 | |||
Genre | Indie pop | |||
Length | 43:04 | |||
Label | Last Gang | |||
Producer | Emily Haines | |||
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton chronology | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 73/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork | 7.3/10 [3] |
Rockfeedback | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Stylus Magazine | B+ [5] |
This Is Fake DIY | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Uncut Magazine | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
URB | 8/10 [8] |
Knives Don't Have Your Back is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton. It is not her own debut album, as she released under her own name in limited number of copies an earlier work in 1996, the Cut in Half and Also Double album, which was self-released. The album was released in September 2006 on Last Gang Records. It debuted at 28 in Canada and has sold 20,000 copies there. She has stated that Metric is still her first priority.
The album is a collection of piano-driven songs backed with soft strings and horns and is said to feature guest spots by Sparklehorse's Scott Minor, members of Stars, Broken Social Scene and Metric.
She is quoted as saying the following: "When I was a little kid…I would creep downstairs to the piano and write rudimentary songs about imaginary places. I'm told the first song I ever wrote was a love song to a cranberry tree. I always used the mute pedal. I hated the idea of anybody hearing me. Everywhere I've lived while working with Metric, I've written songs on the piano and played them for no one. On the advice of a friend, I decided I'd better start recording them before they were forgotten. Four meandering years later I ended up with this collection of songs featuring a few of my favorite people, a group I call The Soft Skeleton."
The album's art is based on that of Escalator over the Hill , Haines' late father Paul Haines' album with Carla Bley.
The album was "critically lauded", and was considered one of the best albums of 2006. [9] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 73 based on 18 reviews. [2]
The song "Doctor Blind" was rated #457 on Pitchfork Media's Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s. [10]
The original UK and Ireland CD release featured 3 bonus tracks: "The Bank", "Bottom Of The World" and "Sprig".
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Cut in Half and Also Double is the debut album by Canadian artist Emily Haines that she self-released in about 2,000 copies in 1996 in Toronto. The song "Carpet" contains similar lyrics and vocal melodies to those in "Too Little Too Late," which she recorded a decade later with her band Metric. "Pink" finishes with a recording of a homeless woman rambling.
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain is the fourth and final album by Sparklehorse before Mark Linkous' death in 2010. It was released on September 25, 2006 by Astralwerks Records.
What is Free to a Good Home? is the first extended play (EP) by Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton. The EP consists of five new songs and a remix, including previously unreleased tracks from the sessions of Knives Don't Have Your Back. It was released July 24, 2007 in Canada and the United States on Last Gang Records. The title of the EP comes from a poem by Emily Haines' father, Paul Haines.
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