Having loosely formed in 1999, the fifth full album from Broken Social Scene is now here. With a touring line-up like no other and a massive studio set of talented musicians, can nearly two decades bring some calm to their perfect storm?…
Alt-rock, indie rock, ambient, baroque pop – call it what you will, it’s anything but ordinary, the Canadian band is a little chaotic to say the least. With as few as six and as many as fifteen members at any given point. The concept behind Broken Social Scene is to incorporate different elements from all of the present members’ individual projects at the time of production. Chaotic? Yes. Overdone? Never.
Halfway Home is the first ‘real’ track on the album and frenetic but undeniably talented indie rock is clearly the flavour of the day in this track. With masterful synth, perfectly timed drums and complex and indeed manifold guitars strike their unique riffs across the space and vocals, never seeming to compete, only to complement. It feels like every member-heavy garage wants to sound. Everyone wanting to vie for centre stage and showcase their abilities. It’s mad, it’s complicated, but it works so very well. It’s a pity the second indie feature of the album can’t reach the same lofty heights, despite being called Skyline. It’s more typical of a more standard indie entry, and whilst you won’t be disappointed in it, it’s a bit of a letdown considering the first entry to the genre on this album. There is also a surf-rock-indie track sitting at track 8, going by the name of Towers and Masons. Unfortunately it’s nowhere near as solid as the name might suggest, for all the complexity it attempts to bring, it is undone by a whining set of vocals over a convoluted melody replete with plucked guitars, surf-rock ooo’s and ahh’s and even 8-bit sound samples…let’s move on.
Protest Song, as you may expect, leans more towards a punk sound, think earlier Green Day such as Dookie, but with plenty of outside-the-genre influence, and for the most part, a female vocalist. There’s lo-fi guitar solos, a distorted bass guitar thundering through the track and even a drum set that seems to rasp its way along the backing of the track as well. Coupled with surprisingly clear vocal harmonies layered over the fuzz, it makes for a fantastic contrast. With less of the punk but definitely keeping the lo-fi edge, Vanity Pail Kids drives its way unapologetically into the midpoint of the album. Retaining the pounding drums and distortion from Protest Song it opts for a rockier set of spoken word vocals and sampled speech, finished off with touches of FX-driven chorus vocal hooks. A constant, and almost amusing addition to both songs, is the touches of brass that appear at bridging intervals, odd but definitely not unwelcome.
The title track, Hug Of Thunder does justice to its name. The songs takes some of the ambient influence from the opening track, Sol Luna, coupled with sustained, booming drums and bass to create a song that feels like a building storm, despite the melodic, feminine vocals that are complemented by subtle guitars wherever they appear to punctuate the ominous build of the song, even if the storm never breaks. Not long after, Victim Lover also takes elements of a soothing ambient influence to build an almost ethereal timbre around the song, making it truly encapsulating – it’s easily my favourite track on the album, even if it’s genre-defying, maybe this is the beginning of post-pop?
Two of the final tracks of the album, Please Take Me With You and Mouth Guards Of The Apocalypse are both perfectly placed in the tracklisting. Both are complex beasts of songs, but both also do ample justice to showing off just how well the massive group can work together, despite a wealth of styles and influences.
Whilst it may never be a casual listening road trip CD or something to mindlessly list you through a commute, that’s no bad thing. This album demands your time, and you would do well to heed that demand. Why not pop into your local Richer Sounds and find a set up to do this juggernaut justice
Author: Steve, Southgate store
