Some things are better said with the lights out. Emily Haines’ first solo release: Knives Don’t Have Your Back, creates a ruminative mood with its deeply introspective lyrics.

It manages to evoke the atmosphere of a moonlit room with minimal piano accompaniment or cinematic arrangements.
The songs for this album have been collected over recent years as Haines managed to muster up the nerve to release them as a fulllength album. Although she fronts the new-wave influenced rock outfit Metric, and is part of the massive indie collective known as Broken Social Scene, this album wouldn’t fit either of these bands. It’s far removed from Metric’s spunk and Broken Social Scene’s atmospheric style. The focus here is words, and they’re distinctly her own.

Kirsten Schubert: Why did you not play these songs for other people?

Emily Haines: I have a lot of respect for great songwriters and piano players like Duke Ellington and Carla Blay. I grew up listening to truly great musicians, so if I didn’t feel like I could stand behind my contributions…I was only half behind them. Then I realized that my life was going by and it wasn’t coming back. If I was ever going to achieve what I wanted to achieve,if I really have this respect for the writing that inspired me – I better start putting out records. There was a sense of urgency and of learning to be brave.