''The Guards Themselves'' is an album by New Zealand band, Minuit, that was supposed to be released during early 2005. However, during the production of "The Guards Themselves", lead singer Ruth Carr's left vocal cord was paralysed which delayed the production, and therefore, release of this album to 2006. According to specialists it was unsure if Ruth would ever be able to sing again. However Ruth managed to recover fully a year later and the production for "The Guards Themselves" was able to continue. Lyrically and musically this is a much more sinister affair than their debut. As well as the hard dance of elements that featured on ''

The 88 The 88 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. The group consists of Keith Slettedahl (vocals and guitar), Adam Merrin (keyboards and vocals), Anthony Zimmitti (drums and percussion), and Todd O'Keefe (bass and vocals). Meeti ...

'' there is also evidence of a more "rock" influence on "The Guards Themselves" opposed to The 88. According to Paul Dodge, ''It sounds bigger and fuller and a little bit harder and it has a lot more depth to it''. He goes on to compare Minuit to a teenager, saying it's growing older. ''The Guards Themselves'' was mastered by Emily Lazar at her

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

mastering house at the lodge. Emily has worked with artists

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

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The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

. They managed to get to Emily through Damian Taylor, who is a

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operator based in

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where he works with artists like

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

; an interesting - if inconsequential - link, because Minuit is often compared to Björk. This album was named after the Latin proverb "''Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?''" which translates to "Who Will Guard The Guards Themselves?" The artwork for ''The Guards Themselves'' was designed by Minuit member Paul Dodge and friend Aaron McKirdy. It features childlike cartoon creatures with speech bubbles containing one-liners from the songs. In conjunction with the album release, stickers of the creatures were distributed throughout New Zealand. Paul explains the inspiration behind the creatures: "''Those little guys came into being 'cos some of the words are pretty heavy; so when you see a little cartoon character saying it, it puts it into another context. But never to trivialise the sentiment, they're still pretty mean little characters who seem to have a history of their own, of being up against it.''"

Track listing

# "I'm Sorry Baby" # "The Guards Themselves" # "Bury You In Brazil" # "Suave As Sin" # "Fuji" # "Lock The Doors, Block The Roads" # "Do Me In" # "We're All Scared Professor" # "Fake!" # "A Room Full Of Cute" # "Forever" # "The Sum Of Us" 2006 albums Minuit (band) albums {{2000s-electronic-album-stub