![]() ![]() Then the strings and horns kick in for full symphonic effect, and Broken Social Scene is off on its own peculiar and magnificent odyssey.īefore long, I was listening compulsively to the entire album, mesmerized by the band’s gaudy eccentricities, from the groovy falsetto of “Hotel” to the stop-and-start, hand-clapping madness of “Windsurfing Nation” (which is where K-OS makes his mercifully brief cameo). Then there’s “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day),” an homage to those patron saints of indie rock, Pavement Stephen Malkmus himself hasn’t put out a song this good since “Crooked Rain.” Through the first several bars of shaggy guitar chords and wobbly vocals, it even sounds like it is Pavement. “7/4 (Shoreline)” is a deeply effective pop tune: A crisp, skipping drumbeat supports a seductive vocal by Leslie Feist (who happens to have her own flourishing solo career). Naturally, he’s a “conscious” rapper they’re the kind who hate your hate.īut as I got around to actually listening to the CD, a couple of songs immediately sunk their hooks into me. My relationship with Broken Social Scene’s new self-titled CD got off to an inauspicious start when I flipped open the case and was greeted by the message “We hate your hate.” Soldiering on, I read the credits and noticed that the “collective” had swelled to seventeen members, an awful lot of cooks for simple fare like rock music, plus four guests, one of whom is the rapper K-OS. Wasn’t Canada just the coolest? And by the slack standards of indie rock, the album even sold well: about 80,000 copies in the U.S. People liked the fact that just about every Canadian band of note was either represented in the collective or was just a degree or two separated. Broken Social Scene was celebrated by critics for its dramatic flair and for high-degree-of-difficulty stunts like slipping a trombone into the mix and making it sound like it belonged. You Forgot It in People was a critical smash, paving the way for the great musical invasion from the north that’s still going strong today (Wolf Parade and Constantines are worthy of attention). To my ears, it sounded like a class project. The melodies were sweet, but the arrangements suffered from too much democracy-a whole bunch of different singers and every instrumentalist under the sun: banjo pickers, violinists, horn blowers, you name it. debut, 2003’s You Forgot It in People, seemed to bear this out, buckling under the weight of its good intentions. I’m all for collaboration, but given that the Ringos of the world outnumber the Pauls and Johns, I much prefer egocentric control freaks. Broken Social Scene is usually described as “a rock collective,” a term that makes me want to gag.
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