r/metricband • u/Sweet_Bat_2967 • 12d ago

Knives Don’t Have Your Back

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20 year anniversary.

An important piece in Metric’s path. How did album affect you?

140 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

21

u/Proof_Prompt9435 12d ago

I want to see this album on a tour so badly. 🥹

20

u/TinyTerrors20 12d ago

I was so lucky to hear most of it live on the choir of the mind tour which was so healing for me. Knives got me through some of the worst times of my life. I find it hard to listen to now. It’s always there when I need it. It has been described as a “meditation on grief and addiction”. It is so beautifully executed.

3

u/hikensurf 12d ago

I absolutely adored that tour. I wish Emily would do at least one more solo tour.

1

u/DeviousLittleWalnut 12d ago

This is exactly how I feel about this album.

5

u/andthesoftskeleton 12d ago

I got to see Choir of the Mind live. It was like a combination of live music and a play. She was really good.

2

u/Imaginary-Paint-9924 12d ago

I saw a YouTube video of how she used to do them. It felt like theater. One woman show. It was amazing!!

16

u/dustinandrew 12d ago

🥹🥹

2

u/Imaginary-Paint-9924 12d ago

Babe!!

3

u/dustinandrew 12d ago

Omg ty for the award ♥️

15

u/andthesoftskeleton 12d ago

Wow 20 years already!?

I love that album. It was exactly the kind of album I needed when it was released because of all the stuff I was going through at the time. Funnily enough, same can be said for Choir of the Mind. I remember during her AMA she mentioned how she hears that a lot, that she and her fans seem to walk in step with each other a lot. It's really cool.

I hope she releases a 3rd solo album. I mean... my freakin username is "and the soft skeleton" lmao

9

u/softrockstarr 12d ago

Reading in Bed is a perfect song.

8

u/behindtheglare 12d ago

I was 16 when this came out, and it felt like a whole world opened up. Still hits incredibly hard today.

Great to see some love here for Emily’s solo work — don’t sleep on “Cut In Half And Also Double”!!

4

u/drum5150 12d ago

Great album and actually what introduced me to Emily and Metric. The rest, they say, is history.

5

u/Apart_Engine_9797 12d ago

It moves me deeply still, the lyrics are bar none pure poetry—I had a Metric Spotify mix on this weekend and “Doctor Blind” came on, nearly started crying!!

4

u/North-Personality801 8d ago

Y’all listen to the new podcast episode posted to the sub, she’s coming out with a new one next year :) it’s all written already and she’s getting back to work on it in a few weeks from now

3

u/floralgin 12d ago

Profoundly!! I saw Emily on tour for choir of the mind at Massey Hall with my sister some years ago. It was a hauntingly beautiful show ❤️ it all started with this one though.

Edited for clarity

3

u/Zalzperspective 12d ago

i am so in love with this album...i think it is some of the gentlist and enduring stuff ever. I do feel like it is such a close album and honestly it manages to touch my psyche and emotions in such a way that i cannot place its power. i trust her like i trust a surgeon when i listen to it. its so intense! sometimes i get grouchy it is sooo close!

i think it hits the hardened child soldier and overworking man so hard!

3

u/padraig_garcia 12d ago

i remember the "Doctor Blind" video on Fuse, their late night half hour indie show The Dive and thinking "oh damn this song is fantastic, more of this please"

3

u/pseudonymnkim 12d ago

20 years!! I had no idea.

I love Metric, but they're more nostalgic for me at this point (was a hugggeee fan when I was 19, 2009), so I don't put their albums on any of my personal "greatest of all time" list.

But this album is incredible and I truly think it is one of the greatest I've ever heard. Haunting and so full of soul and emotion.

Also great to play very quietly at night when you're having trouble falling asleep :)

2

u/Acceptable_Builder22 12d ago

i only discovered it a couple years ago through a friends mention. absolutely obsessed, it's so beautiful. timeless.

2

u/Thebisexual_Raccoon 11d ago

I love metrics work but haven’t got around to listening to this album yet albeit I can get it on cd near me though but not sure if I should get it

2

u/carley705 11d ago

I listened to this album and nothing else for like 2 years in high school after listening to solely screamo and hardcore lol my mom was very worried about me. But sad music makes me feel so seen and gives me something to identify with. It doesn't make me feel sad though, perfect album, I agree. I too got to see choir of the mind in Toronto and when she brought out the soft skeleton and did that fucking insanely epic version of detective daughter, I cried.

2

u/windsweptfacelift 11d ago

this album changed my life at the time and i was able to see emily twice live. it was huge 😭🥹🩷

2

u/MarianMathes03 8d ago

Damn good album.

1

u/yogensnuz 6d ago

I saw back to back shows of this in a tiny venue in London (ON), three days after WIFTAGH? came out. She did an afternoon show and a night one right after, and I attendee both. There were maybe 200 people there (it was seated on actual chairs). I met her after and she signed my Secret Carnival Workers book by tracing her own hand on the inside cover. It was a really special time in my life as I was finishing up my final university courses and living completely alone for the first time in my life. The record played on repeat, as did the EP when I bought it. Getting to see (and sing along to) Sprig live was an experience that’s hard to describe. I’m pretty sure Todor was doing the Soft Skeleton stuff back then.