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Aug 15, 2017 By Christopher Roberts Emily Haines

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Metric frontwoman (and Broken Social Scene collaborator) Emily Haines is releasing a new solo album, Choir of the Mind, under the name Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton on September 15 via Last Gang/eOne. Previously she shared videos for the album’s first single, “Fatal Gift,” and album opener “Planets.” Now she has shared another song from the record, the Elliott Smith-referencing “Statuette,” via its video. Justin Broadbent directed the clip, which features Haines as an actress at an audition where she comes up against a sleazy casting couch type situation. Watch it below via Stereogum (who premiered it).

Haines had this to say to say about the video to Stereogum: “This video is a continuation of the work I’ve been doing with visual artist Justin Broadbent to accompany Choir of the Mind. We replicated a sleazy audition taping where the objectified woman’s value is reduced to the commercial desirability of her flesh. In the video, I get to reclaim myself and own it in the end. It was one of the weirder shoots I’ve done, acting out that humiliation, conforming to the lowered standards of all the other girls who so desperately want the part. I love the contrast between the summertime bossa nova beat and this generic, sad setting. There’s a strong connection between the visual mood and the lyrics. ‘With all the coal in core, all the water and the oil, you can buy any girl in the world. With the soil that you borrow and the moral you deny, you can buy the eyes of the world.’”

Haines released a fantastic solo album, Knives Don’t Have Your Back, 11 years ago, in 2006, also under the name Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton. That was followed in 2007 by the EP What Is Free to a Good Home? But since then it’s been all quiet on the solo front, with Haines focusing mainly on Metric

Choir of the Mind was written over the last few years, in between Metric moments, and was recorded in 2016 at Giant Studios, on the West end of Toronto. Metric’s Jimmy Shaw co-produced the album with Haines, and it was engineered by Kenny Luong. Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor, who also appeared on the original Soft Skeleton recordings, appears on the track “Legend of the Wild Horse.”

Broken Social Scene released a new album, Hug of Thunder, on July 7 via Arts & Crafts and Haines is featured on it.

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