Not to be left in the dust (or the snow) by fellow Canucks The New Pornographers and Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene is set to release another gem this Tuesday, further proving that Canada is good for something other than cheap jokes and maple syrup. The Scene’s eponymous follow-up to 2002’s magnificent You Forgot It In People is consistently more energetic than its predecessor and ranks as one of the best albums of the year.
On its latest offering the band makes the best of its all-star line up, which features members of Stars, Do Make Say Think, Metric and A Silver Mt. Zion, as well as indie-pop songstress Feist. “Our Faces Split the Coast in Half” opens the album with gently plucked acoustic guitar that gives way to a complex arrangement of multi-faceted percussion, buoyant vocals, strings and horns. The song eventually unwinds, segueing into the queasy, lackadaisical guitar riffs of “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Half).” The track stays appealing despite being slightly hampered by the lead singer’s slurred, slightly inebriated vocals.
Broken Social Scene quickly bounces back with “7/4 (Shoreline),” a boy vs. girl spectacular in which Leslie Feist and Brendan Canning trade off crooning and belting their vocals. Foreboding lyrics like “It’s a cruel world/And it’s time” rise over a volatile concoction of electric guitars, drums, trumpets and saxophone.
The band maintains the intensity throughout the album with rockers such as “Fire Eye’d Boy,” “Windsurfing Nation” and “Superconnected.” It also mixes in airy, laidback pop compositions such as “Major Label Debut” and “Hotel” for those of us with respiratory problems. While not as musically diverse as You Forgot It In People, Broken Social Scene is the band’s most consistent and coherent album to date.
