There is no one in the world who loves Emily Haines more than me. No one! Hmm. Okay maybe her gynecologist and that midget who has her face tattooed all over his body in different expressions. But after them, it is totally me. And when I found out she had a solo album from 1996 I was considering stabbing a few fellow Superstarcastics to get the chance to review it first. I don’t mess around. Like I said, I LOVE EMILY HAINES. (disclaimer: the current restraining order is a complete misunderstanding. I mean, her bedroom window was totally open! It was just begging to be climbed into!)

Emily Haines didn’t hit my aural radar until her work with the Oakland, Californian electro-pop band, Metric. Metric’s three albums, ‘Grown up and Blown Away’, ‘Old World Underground, where are you now?’ and ‘Live it out‘ are brilliantly seductive with their poppy melodies and surprisingly witty lyrics. So obviously I was an instant convert to the Metric system. But honestly, it was mostly for the subtle and wispy voice of their front-woman, Emily Haines. After their 2005 release, the band went on to produce and work on side projects. in 2006, Haines’ released her solo endeavor with her Soft Skeleton called ‘Knives don’t have your back‘. Where it didn’t have the fun synthesizers and bedroom dancing rhythms, it did have the wit and spunk known of Emily Haines.

But yes, yes, I digress. This retro review is about her first release ‘Cut in Half and Double‘. I was Fifteen in 1996 when this album dropped and I am sure the teenage douche bag I was would have never been able to appreciate this album for what it is, was, err will be! Right from the beginning you can hear the building blocks of what would become Emily Haines‘ distinctive sound. Her haunting voice strains through the microphone on ‘Pretty head’ where she whines about the pitfalls of being beautiful. During ‘Eden‘, Haines convinces you of her street cred and musical genius. ‘Dog‘, the albums opening song, is a playful ballad of the life of her canine companion and it’s self existential crisis. There are some tracks that date this album though. ‘Freak’ sounds a bit like the girl-y angst songs that were running rampant during that time. (I blame you, Alanis) ‘Eau De Toilette’ could have been sung by kinky blond haired ‘What if God was one of us’ bitch. But, those are the only dated sounding songs on this nine track album. It’s amazing how timeless most of Emily Haines work sounds. Or maybe music has already revolved to the point that old is now new new, and new is the new old. Or old is the new young and Darfur is the new hotel Rwanda… well you get my point.

Maybe I am not the best person to review this album since I seem to be taking notes from Fox news, neither fair nor balanced. But my personal bias aside, ‘Cut in Half and Double‘ has the charm and wit that is expected of Emily Haines. Is it Metric? No. Is it Soft Skeleton? Almost. Listening to this album has been the like flipping through the childhood photos of a pop songstress. There is a lot going on here, and when you look of all the musical magic that has come afterward, it’s hard to not like Emily Haines from the beginning.

7/10
Release Date: 1996
Label: Self Released

3 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment