Knives Don't Have Your Back

If somebody said to me right now "you can have anyone you want to come over to your house, anyone in the world, who would it be?" I would say Emily Haines. I would want her here so I can say thank you and tell her how much I love Knives Don't Have Your Back, and then of course I would ask her to play on our piano. KDHYB is one of those ablums that are just so... there for you. Here I am, bored on a wet Thursday afternoon, listening to such a great record, I decided to perform some calculations. iPods are useful because they have playcounts and tell me how long each song lasts. So, here is what I did for each song:

I converted song length to seconds, then multiplied it by the playcount and divided by 60, in order to find the total amount of time in minutes I have listened to each song from KDHYB on my ipod. Here we go:

Our Hell = 191 minutes
Doctor Blind = 205 minutes
Crowd Surf Off a Cliff = 147 minutes
Detective Daughter = 124 minutes
The Lottery = 101 minutes
The Maid Needs a Maid = 272 minutes
Mostly Waving = 121 minutes
Reading in Bed =129 minutes
Nothing and Nowhere = 287 minutes
The Last Page = 150 minutes

And for the big finale, the closing track "Winning" gets a gargantuan.... 451 minutes! That's over 7 hours of that one song alone!

so the total amount of time I've spent listening to that album on my ipod = 2177 minutes, or 36.2 hours! That's over a day of Emily Haines's voice and piano. That's pretty cool... or pretty sad depending on which way you view it. And that's just on my ipod alone, not counting the CD, the vinyl, youtube videos etc etc etc. You can add another 45 minutes to that total play time because I'm going to listen again right now.

To reiterate the fact I'm bored (as if you couldn't tell already) I'm going to gush about this album track by track. Is it wrong that Emily's melancholy state on this album makes me feel really happy and comforted? When I try to describe what this album means to me, all I can say is it's like "home". It's just safe, when I put it on I know what I'm getting and I know I will love it. It's such a rock, a stable, steady thing. It's perfect.

Our Hell: The opening track does a pretty decent job of setting up the tone for this beautiful album. It's haunting and tragic. "My throat will ache, watching you turn from me towards your friends" Oh Emily, I feel your pain.

Doctor Blind: Her breathy voice is so hypnotic on this track. The piano is lovely too. The music video is apt for this eerie track.

Crowd Surf Off A Cliff: This is my least favourite on the record, but that's not to say I don't like it.

Detective Daughter: I love this song. It's so sad. So beautiful. Emily muses "There are so many skirts under the table/ none of those long legs are mine". The piano is really sparse when she sings that bit, and it works so well.

The Lottery: Not to be repetitive, but, I love this song! The song takes a nostalgic look at feminism and equality. The final verse is the hook. "It's pathetic/ it's impossible/ like girls in stilettos/ like girls in stilettos/ like girls in stilettos trying to run." One of my favourites on the record. If I could have anyone's voice in the world, it would be Emily's. She could sing the alphabet, the phonebook, the dictionary and I would still listen. I have a recording where she's reading her father's poetry and she's just reading a huge list of names, but once I start listening I can't stop, I love her voice. It's so whispery and beautiful.

The Maid Needs A Maid: Another of my favourites. Her voice soars on this one. "you won't need a real job/ you won't need a real job/ because I would love to pay for you"

Ok well I'm getting bored of typing so I'll skip to the track that gives me heart palpitations (of joy).

Winning: The album closer. One of my favourite songs not just on the record, but ever. It's moving, haunting, beautiful. The song holds alot of meanings and memories for me. It's been in my life for a couple of years now. It's the song with the album title in it, the lyrics are so..... perfect. The vocals are perfect. The piano is perfect. It's the perfect closer to the album. It's so reflective and thoughtful. I'm on the verge of quoting out the entire song because I can't seperate one bit from the rest, because it's all perfect. The "what's a wolf without a pack?" line is really special to me, a long with "when you talk, can I tape you?" and then the whole end chunk "don't even visit that place/ they'll sharpen their teeth on your smile/ I'm glad you didn't, all our songs will be lullabies in no time". Ok, it's like talking about food while you're hungry, I have to listen to this song again now. I could easily quote the song and go on and on about how much I love it but I must stop now!

Time to end this blog. I'm going to London tomorrow to see an Aussie band called Houlette. I can't wait to see of Montreal in a few weeks, how great does Kevin's new moustache look!? Haha I love Kevin, he's so funny. I'm sure oM will put on a truly spectacular show.

END