Broken Social Scene [Digipak] - Broken Social Scene

Here's a fact for you: Broken Social Scene are the most important Canadian music act there is. They are more important right now than Arcade Fire, any of the Wainwright family, anyone you can think of. And why are they so important? Because Broken Social Scene are a supergroup. Within the band you will find members of Metric, and Stars - here you can find Feist, and Emily Haines, and Kevin Drew. Jason Collett, too, is a member of the group... Jason ...
...none of the members of Broken Social Scene had ever performed music, the Canadian music scene would be crippled. So there.

Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are the two main members of the group, which was at first concerned mainly with instrumentals and sound collages rather than producing songs, a little like a rock n' roll version of Zero 7, but with lots more guitar involved. They then expanded and introduced in several of their friends ... more

Here's a fact for you: Broken Social Scene are the most important Canadian music act there is. They are more important right now than Arcade Fire, any of the Wainwright family, anyone you can think of. And why are they so important? Because Broken Social Scene are a supergroup. Within the band you will find members of Metric, and Stars - here you can find Feist, and Emily Haines, and Kevin Drew. Jason Collett, too, is a member of the group... Jason Tait from The Weakerthans is a member, k-os and K.C. Accidental are both connected to this group... If none of the members of Broken Social Scene had ever performed music, the Canadian music scene would be crippled. So there.

Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are the two main members of the group, which was at first concerned mainly with instrumentals and sound collages rather than producing songs, a little like a rock n' roll version of Zero 7, but with lots more guitar involved. They then expanded and introduced in several of their friends for their second album "You Forgot It In People", before expanding yet again in 2005 to release this eponymous record, their last to date. It's an interesting album certainly, quite often content to doodle around without any clear musical aims, and sounds a lot like one massive jamming session for all concerned. Amidst all the spaced-out guitars and hoarse vocals though, there are a surprising number of decent songs here. Typically, indie get-togethers tend to veer into mindless junk, but only about half the songs here are worthless - that's a result. One thing that won't surprise is that the best songs are the ones where the three femmes of Broken Social Scene - Leslie Feist (also known as… Feist), Emily Haines (from Metric) and Amy Millan (from Stars) are given lots to do. They are all three of 'em superb singers, which helps the album through some rough patches.

Opening track "Our Faces Split The Coast in Half" is a song for a morning after, when you get out of bed, stand on something, knock over your lamp as you wander through your house, and generally stagger around looking for asprin. Generally speaking, it's an instrumental, although Feist hiccups something or other and the song races up with twin guitars into something almost monumental, making quite a lot out of nothing. It could quite possibly be the best instrumental on the record, although this is mostly to do with the fact that the other two instrumental tracks "Finish Your Collapse And Stay For Breakfast", and "Tremaloa Debut" combined barely scratch the two-minute marker, and it's a superb idea to skip them and pretend they don't exist. They make no impression anyway. "Major Label Debut" is essentially an instrumental, but only because Kevin Drew sings it, and I barely rate his vocals at all. He sounds constantly stoned, as if he's burbling nonsense into the microphone just for want of something else to do, and the song survives only on the basis that it's a chillout. It cannot compare to the king of said genre - Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized - but this is roundabout what the band are aiming for here.

The second half of the album is mostly concerned with throwing mist into your face and providing hazy, messy music that is genius if you happen to be drunk, and slightly sloppy if you're sober. "Hotel" shows this off to a full extent, with some punchy brass and guitars marred by a slurring male vocal that doesn't add anything to the music. Quite often, the music here would probably be better off for being an instrumental, actually, because as musicians the band are highly accomplished - the epic "It's All Gonna Break" goes absolutely everywhere during 9 minutes, showcasing off highs and lows, and the vocals add little. They're nice, actually, they don't break up the song at all, but the music is so strong as to make them pointless. If you like Beck, Nirvana, that sort of slacker music, this song alone is possibly worth the album. Possibly. Personally, the section of music which begins with "Fire Eye'd Boy" is the best achievement of the band. Perhaps because of the way it sticks within convention, the track stands out amongst the others, as several guitars chime together in rollicking harmony and every member of the band whispers the words together to form a low-key orchestra. Even better is "Windsurfing Nation", the highlight of the album, which focuses on Feist and k-os delivering opposing chorus-verse combinations and completely rocking out. The song starts off quickly, and gets faster, before kicking it into a supremely high-gear when Kevin Drew 'introduces' the real music of the song. Feist cuts in and spits out her side of the story before k-os, a rapper, then delivers his lines in his signature rocky rumble. Emily Haines also tumbles into the equation to help back Feist up, and the whole thing works perfectly. "We won't be who you want us to be!" they chant, irresistibly. This section of the album closes with "Swimmers", which uncomfortably connects to Windsurfing. After stumbling at the start, the song picks up considerably, as Emily Haines sings it with an encouraging tone. The lyrics are rubbish, but the slowed-down pace and mellow feeling that emanates from the song keeps it from sounding corny.

Elsewhere, "Handjobs For The Holidays" and "Bandwith" offer two blissed-out numbers that go nowhere, but fade into obscurity so readily that it's hard to dislike them. When the trumpets blare on the former, it hits better form, but is never more than likeable filler. Bandwith is slightly stronger for featuring Amy Millan (and possibly her Stars bandmate Torquil Caompbell) on backup. The main vocals are fuzzy and annoying, but the gentle harmonies provided in the background somehow steady the song and make it into a pleasant, but overlong, experience. To go back to the start of the album, "(7/4 Shoreline) has much more of a kick, as well as more stuff from Feist. Laid back but always pushing forward, the guitars and drum slip into a serious groove to provide one of the coolest-sounding pieces of music you'll hear, topped by vocal performances from the entire band together that gel effortlessly. This is Broken Social Scene at their best, making music that makes you smile and eases away the outside world. "Superconnected" also brings a firm push of music. After a teasing opening, guitars blur into the song and thrust the rest of the music into the same slipstream. The vocals suffer from being covered in distortion, however, when it would be good to have some real force in the song, and this takes away from any power the track could've had. Things are left to "Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day)" to really drive things into the open. The song originally sounds like it may fall in on itself at any moment, until the vocal bursts in and the song ramps up into an indie anthem. Excellent!

Broken Social Scene are a supergroup yes, but don't let that put you off here. The music has a very prominent 'sound', and the tracks melt together to provide a cohesive musical template that works just as often as it falls flat. Plus, the liner notes are friggin' hilarious. 

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