Broken Social Scene | ||
| Allmusic Biography : As much a creative collective as an indie rock band, Broken Social Scene is a Toronto-based ensemble whose flexible lineup has included some of the best and best-known musicians from the citys left-of-center music community. Emerging in 2001 with Feel Good Lost, the group, whose membership has been as small as two and as large as 15, has created an eclectic body of work thats explored many stylistic avenues, from film music and ambient minimalism to brightly orchestrated Baroque pop, with highlights arriving via the Juno Award-winning You Forgot It in People (2003) and Broken Social Scene (2005), and the chart-topping Hug of Thunder (2017). Artists and acts associated with the group include Feist, Metric, Do Make Say Think, Amy Millan, Stars, Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton, Jason Collett, K.C. Accidental, and Apostle of Hustle. Broken Social Scene was founded in 1999 when Kevin Drew of K.C. Accidental and Brendan Canning of By Divine Right teamed up to collaborate on new music. After two years spent honing their compositions, Drew and Canning released the first Broken Social Scene album, 2001s Feel Good Lost. The album, primarily instrumental, was largely performed by Drew and Canning, though it also featured guest appearances by Evan Cranley of Stars, Bill Priddle from K.C. Accidental, Anthony Seck of Shalabi Effect, Charles Spearin of Do Make Say Think, and vocalist Leslie Feist. Justin Peroff, who played drums on the sessions, would soon become one of the groups mainstays, while BSS live shows often included Andrew Whiteman (Stars), Emily Haines (Metric), James Shaw (Metric), John Crossingham (Raising the Fawn), Amy Millan (Stars), and Jason Collett. Drew, Canning, Peroff, and Spearin were at the core of the band that cut Broken Social Scenes second album, 2002s You Forgot It in People, though the lineup had expanded to 11 musicians, including Cranley, Crossingham, Feist, Haines, Priddle, Shaw, and Whiteman. You Forgot It in People proved to be Broken Social Scenes breakthrough, earning rave reviews from critics and winning a Juno Award as Best Alternative Album. In 2003, BSS released a stopgap compilation, Bee Hives, which gathered B-sides from their singles as well as remixed tracks. The band returned with a self-titled third album in 2005; by this time, Broken Social Scene had grown even larger, with Ohad Benchetrit (Do Make Say Think), Torquil Campbell (Stars), and Martin Davis Kinack performing alongside the crew from You Forgot It in People. Like their second album, Broken Social Scene earned the group another Juno Award for Best Alternative Album, and they mounted an international tour. They also became last-minute headliners at Torontos 2006 Virgin Festival, stepping in when original bill toppers Massive Attack were stranded in the U.K. due to visa problems. Following the touring cycle for Broken Social Scene, the group went on hiatus as the members pursued individual projects. In 2007, Kevin Drew dropped a solo album under the banner "Broken Social Scene Presents," Spirit If …, and Brendan Canning followed suit with 2008s Something for All of Us. Both albums featured extensive contributions from other members of the band. (Drew would also release a series of four "Broken Social Scene Presents" EPs in 2007.) In 2009, author Stuart Berman published a book on BSS, This Book Is Broken, which was created with the cooperation of the band. The following year, Broken Social Scene became movie stars with the release of This Movie Is Broken, a romantic comedy by Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald that takes place at a BSS concert in Toronto. In 2010, Broken Social Scene returned with an especially ambitious project. The album Forgiveness Rock Record was recorded in Toronto, New York, and Chicago, and included contributions from 28 different musicians, including members of Pavement and Death from Above 1979. Fans who pre-ordered the album also received a ten-song digital EP, Lo-Fi for the Dividing Nights, while also releasing seven different remixes of the track "All to All." Another critical success, the album was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, and rose to number one on the Canadian sales charts. (In the United States, it peaked at 34, an impressive achievement for an independent release.) In late 2010, Broken Social Scene once again went on hiatus, though they re-formed for occasional concerts and festival appearances, and in 2013 they sponsored a literary competition, inviting authors to write short stories inspired by songs from You Forgot It in People. The 13 finalists stories were published in a book titled The Broken Social Scene Story Project: Short Works Inspired by You Forgot It in People. The full 15-member edition of BSS reconvened to record their fifth album, Hug of Thunder, which was released in July 2017. In January 2019, the band issued the single "All I Want" ahead of the arrival of the Lets Try the After - Vol. 1 EP, which arrived the following month. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 12 Title: Feel Good Lost Released: 2001-03-06 Tracks: 12 Duration: 59:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 I Slept With Bonhomme at the CBC (05:26) 2 Guilty Cubicles (03:03) 3 Love and Mathematics (05:44) 4 Passport Radio (05:45) 5 Alive in 85 (05:14) 6 Prison Province (01:42) 7 Blues for Uncle Gibb (06:59) 8 Stomach Song (04:29) 9 Mossbraker (05:33) 10 Feel Good Lost (01:51) 11 Last Place (08:26) 12 Cranleys Gonna Make It (05:24) |
| Feel Good Lost : Allmusic album Review : Broken Social Scene cast an abstract web of dream pop, shoegaze, and indie rock for their debut album, Feel Good Lost. Essentially, its an album of instrumentals. The title itself hints at the collectives effort in composing a lush soundscape of strings, brass, guitars, and pianos with an added dash of electronic beats. Songs such as "Guilty Cubicles" and "Blues for Uncle Gibb" alone showcase the bands well-crafted mind trip. For a first album, though, Broken Social Scenes care in allowing each song to breathe without the constructs of fancy production and contrived lyrics is what makes the dozen-track selection so impressive. Its expressive without expressing too much. Broken Social Scene leave it up to the mixture of instruments to draw upon some kind of palette. From the layered warbling of "Stomach Song" to the majestic horn arrangements of the gossamer "Passport Radio," the intricacies of Feel Good Lost find a band focused on creating an inventive style of music as well as a group that is insanely ambitious. It might not catch on with indie rock fans right away and it will most likely be an overlooked debut, but its breadth shows promise. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 12 Title: You Forgot It in People Released: 2002-10-15 Tracks: 13 Duration: 56:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Capture the Flag (02:08) 2 KC Accidental (03:50) 3 Stars and Sons (05:09) 4 Almost Crimes (Radio Kills remix) (04:22) 5 Looks Just Like the Sun (04:23) 6 Pacific Theme (05:09) 7 Anthems for a Seventeen Year‐Old Girl (04:35) 8 Cause = Time (05:31) 9 Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries (03:46) 10 Shampoo Suicide (04:05) 11 Lover’s Spit (06:22) 12 I’m Still Your Fag (04:23) 13 Pitter Patter Goes My Heart (02:23) |
| You Forgot It in People : Allmusic album Review : After the release of Feel Good Lost, Broken Social Scene became a bit more collective, swelling from two members to ten (plus guests) and dropping their ambient instrumental approach in favor of full-blown rock songs. As youd expect with such a dramatic rise in membership, theres a lot more variety this time out. The first two tracks mirror the bands transformation perfectly; in fact, the first is a fairly airy instrumental number with a Mark Isham-like feel, while the second slams it off the rails with a driving beat and wailing guitars. Main members Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew even sing this time around, while Leslie Feist and Emily Haines -- both of whom became Canadian stars after this release, which effectively fueled interest in Feists solo albums and Haines work with Metric -- assume lead vocals on other tracks. According to one of the members of this incarnation of the group, trying to determine "who did what" on this album would warrant an entire review in itself, as everyone took turns playing different instruments and the whole project was built from the ground up in a very collective fashion. Listeners who prefer the ambient pop of Feel Good Lost may be put off by the all-over-the-map approach, but You Forgot It in People is a more accessible release overall, and it helped set the stage for Broken Social Scenes international breakthrough in 2005. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 12 Title: Bee Hives Released: 2004-03-23 Tracks: 9 Duration: 48:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 [untitled] (00:37) 2 Market Fresh (03:57) 3 Weddings (07:02) 4 hHallmark (03:53) 5 Backyards (08:14) 6 Da Da Dada (07:09) 7 Ambulance for the Ambience (05:18) 8 Time = Cause (05:07) 9 Lovers Spit (07:34) |
| Bee Hives : Allmusic album Review : It wasnt until Torontos Arts & Crafts label released Broken Social Scenes You Forgot It in People in early summer 2003 that the bands experimental indie pop caught on in America. A Juno Award for best alternative album and a successful North American tour later, Broken Social Scene issue a delightful collection of B-sides, Bee Hives. Recorded for their friends, the nine-song selection is essentially an album of instrumentals; however, it captures different shades and moods of the bands thus-far five-year career quite nicely. The twangy banjo licks of "Backyards" were specially recorded as a project for one of Broken Social Scenes friends in art school. Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Kevin Drew, and the wispy vocals of Emily Haines had to have helped their friend earn a top grade, for the dreamy soundscape that is "Backyards" is surely a standout in the bands catalog. Dressed in a hushing mix of guitars, organs, and synth beats, "hHallmark" and "Ambulance for the Ambience" are two charming tracks recorded in between Feel Good Lost and You Forgot It in People. The listener should sense Broken Social Scenes earnest approach in experimenting with their lo-fi-induced style of sound throughout Bee Hives; therefore, the distinctive arrangement of each song will be as interesting as each one unfolds. "Time = Cause," which coincided with the U.K. single for "Stars and Sons," is a song like that. It explores more of a dark-colored side to the bands typically glossy pop. Backing vocals are ghostly while strings and electronic rhythms are nearly colorless. Thats not to say Bee Hives is mostly unspirited; theres a calmer spirit lingering around Broken Social Scene. The lush version of "Lovers Spit" thats included on You Forgot It In People is stripped down to just a piano. It hurts so much more, mostly due to the beautifully aching lead vocals from Leslie Feist, but in the way thats positively affecting. If you want to single out one stunning moment, thats the one. It cushions Bee Hives for the wonder that it is. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 12 Title: Live at Radio Aligre FM in Paris Released: 2005 Tracks: 6 Duration: 21:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Almost Crimes (04:58) 2 Baby Youre in Luck (02:13) 3 Starts With a Big Finish (02:23) 4 Cause = Time (05:28) 5 Bruised Ghosts (02:00) 6 Lets Get Out of Here (04:11) |
 | Album: 5 of 12 Title: Broken Social Scene Released: 2005-10-04 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:03:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Our Faces Split the Coast in Half (03:42) 2 Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day) (04:27) 3 7/4 (Shoreline) (04:53) 4 Finish Your Collapse and Stay for Breakfast (01:24) 5 Major Label Debut (04:28) 6 Fire Eyed Boy (03:58) 7 Windsurfing Nation (04:35) 8 Swimmers (02:55) 9 Hotel (04:35) 10 Handjobs for the Holidays (04:39) 11 Superconnected (05:39) 12 Bandwitch (06:58) 13 Tremoloa Debut (00:59) 14 Its All Gonna Break (09:55) |
| Broken Social Scene : Allmusic album Review : In Canada, Broken Social Scene is somewhat of a phenomenon. Since wooing fans and critics alike with their 2003 Juno Award-winning album You Forgot It in People, the bands peculiar popularity has made them stars. The community that surrounds the 15-member-plus band is a family-like atmosphere with its many Canadian artists and musicians. When listening to Broken Social Scene, you also get the individual sounds of Feist, Stars, Memphis, Metric, and Apostle of Hustle, among others. Its camaraderie and education combined. The lush dynamic that carries Broken Social Scenes self-titled third effort is definitely built upon that. The 14-song set is as bright and moving as the bands previous efforts, but Broken Social Scene holds more charisma, more depth, and surely more complexities. The mix isnt messy in conventional terms. Its artistically untidy without production boundaries. Album opener "Our Faces Split the Coast in Half," which features the Dears Murray Lightburn, makes a grand entrance with its polished horn arrangements, tight guitar riffs, and hypnotic harmonies. Additional standouts include indie rock moments such as "7/4 (Shoreline)" and the nervy "Fire Eyed Boy." Handclaps and crowd chatter dosie-do with a sharp rock aesthetic on "Windsurfing Nation," which was the original title. Here, Toronto rapper K-Os and Feist vocally find their way through this majestic cinematic backdrop for one of its finest songs. From here, Broken Social Scene is a simply a rush of mini epics: "Handjobs for the Holidays," "Superconnected," and album closer "Its All Gonna Break" (this could have been a Nada Surf song) showcase how smart, creative, and brilliant this band truly is. Broken Social Scene are more than a collective; theyre an orchestra for both the slacker generation and the literati. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 12 Title: EP to Be You and Me Released: 2005-10-04 Tracks: 7 Duration: 26:39 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Her Disappearing Theme (02:53) 2 Canada vs. America (06:08) 3 Baroque Social (03:02) 4 No Smiling Darkness / Snake Charmers Association (05:37) 5 All My Friends (02:42) 6 Major Label Debut (fast) (03:12) 7 Feel Good Lost Reprise (03:02) |
 | Album: 7 of 12 Title: Lo-Fi for the Dividing Nights Released: 2010-05-04 Tracks: 10 Duration: 21:37 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 New Instructions (01:41) 2 Sudden Foot Loss (02:37) 3 Shabba Lights (01:31) 4 Song for Dee (02:05) 5 Elings Haus (01:39) 6 Professor Sambo (02:31) 7 Never Felt Alive (01:51) 8 Paperweight Room (01:54) 9 Turbo Mouse (02:08) 10 Far Out (03:40) |
 | Album: 8 of 12 Title: Forgiveness Rock Record Released: 2010-05-04 Tracks: 14 Duration: 1:03:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 World Sick (06:47) 2 Chase Scene (03:31) 3 Texico Bitches (03:49) 4 Forced to Love (03:34) 5 All to All (04:49) 6 Art House Director (03:32) 7 Highway Slipper Jam (04:26) 8 Ungrateful Little Father (06:41) 9 Meet Me in the Basement (03:43) 10 Sentimental Xs (05:40) 11 Sweetest Kill (05:09) 12 Romance to the Grave (04:47) 13 Water in Hell (04:24) 14 Me and My Hand (02:05) |
| Forgiveness Rock Record : Allmusic album Review : As the founding fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of the "indie rock collective” phenomenon, Broken Social Scene sure have spread their seeds since their eponymous third album in 2005. Between the commercial success of Leslie Feist and the myriad “Broken Social Scene Presents” solo outings, some feared that the Canadian supergroup’s next outing would be a lackluster collection of stitched-together notebook ramblings and half-hearted demos swept up from the studio floor of previous sessions. Luckily, the endlessly creative and surprisingly fluid Forgiveness Rock Record dispels any notion of opportunism by sticking to what the group does best: crafting clever, ramshackle, occasionally soaring bedroom pop songs (listen close for sirens) in a big expensive studio. Bolstered by a handful of evenly spaced, arena-sized rockers like “World Sick,” “Forced to Love,” “Ungrateful Little Father,” and “Water in Hell,” the remaining ten tracks flip through genres like a picture book, pausing only to pencil in the occasional instrumental, one of which (“Meet Me in the Basement,” with its huge strings and “guitarmonies”) elicits bigger goose bumps than some of the singalongs. That’s not to say that the guts of the record are filler, as some of the best moments are its most nuanced (Emily Haines, Leslie Feist, and Amy Millan’s breezy, instantly engaging “Sentimental X,” the easy, dusty “Highway Slipper Jam”), proving once again that an army can make a cohesive album if everyone follows the rules of engagement. The core members may be down to nine, with an emphasis on founders Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, but the “additional members” and “guests” involved (31 strong, when all is said and done) are what make Forgiveness Rock Record unique, especially in an era where bloated membership is so often used as a gimmick. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 12 Title: Hug of Thunder Released: 2017-07-07 Tracks: 12 Duration: 52:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Sol Luna (01:19) 2 Halfway Home (04:41) 3 Protest Song (04:18) 4 Skyline (04:11) 5 Stay Happy (04:10) 6 Vanity Pail Kids (03:59) 7 Hug of Thunder (04:54) 8 Towers and Masons (04:00) 9 Victim Lover (04:55) 10 Please Take Me with You (04:53) 11 Gonna Get Better (05:10) 12 Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse (05:44) |
| Hug of Thunder : Allmusic album Review : The fifth full-length outing from the substantial Toronto collective -- this iteration is 15 strong -- the aptly named Hug of Thunder is the bands long-awaited follow-up to 2010s Forgiveness Rock Record. A dense, soul-searching blast of civic-minded indie rock/alt-pop comfort food, the 12-track set is mired in the cultural and political miasma of its time, but Broken Social Scene have always been about community -- Kevin Drew has suggested in interviews that the 2015 terror attacks in Paris served as the impetus for the bands reconvening. Leslie Feist, Emily Haines, and Kevin Drew may serve as the groups ambassadors, but BSS are a ship requiring the whole crew to stay afloat, and Hug of Thunder is buoyant with inclusiveness and cautious hope. The shambolic, post-rock kissing cousins to fellow veteran Canadian pop army New Pornographers, Broken Social Scenes aural emissions may be less confectionary, but theyre no less immediate. Forgoing some of the elongated, atmosphere-driven instrumentals that peppered prior outings (wordless opener "Sol Luna" clocks in at just over a minute), things escalate quickly with co-openers "Halfway Home" and "Protest Song," two of the punchiest things the band has offered up in years. They dial it back a bit on the dreamy, Drew-led "Skyline," a lush, midnight highway-ready affair that evokes the easy, classic rock vibe of the War on Drugs, but "Vanity Pail Kids" turns the power back on with a knotty, all-hands-on-deck electro-disco party that sees all three lead vocalists representing. However, its the wordy, Feist-delivered title cut, a master class in balancing mood and melody, that delivers the albums finest moments, and the best distillation of what makes BSS so venerable. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 12 Title: Lets Try the After (Vol. 1) Released: 2019-02-15 Tracks: 5 Duration: 19:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Sweet Sea (00:47) 2 Remember Me Young (04:25) 3 Boyfriends (05:23) 4 1972 (04:53) 5 All I Want (03:36) |
 | Album: 11 of 12 Title: Lets Try the After (Vol. 2) Released: 2019-04-12 Tracks: 5 Duration: 17:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Memory Lover (01:18) 2 Cant Find My Heart (05:07) 3 Big Couches (02:53) 4 Lets Try the After (03:35) 5 Wrong Line (04:26) |
 | Album: 12 of 12 Title: Lets Try The After Released: 2019-04-13 Tracks: 10 Duration: 36:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 The Sweet Sea (00:47) 2 Remember Me Young (04:25) 3 Boyfriends (05:23) 4 1972 (04:53) 5 All I Want (03:36) 6 Memory Lover (01:18) 7 Cant Find My Heart (05:07) 8 Big Couches (02:53) 9 Lets Try the After (03:35) 10 Wrong Line (04:26) |