broken social scene - s/t
ireallylovethisalbum.
i didn't expect this to happen. in fact upon my first listen i was somewhat appalled. i had got out the ironing board, set it up centralised between the speakers, turned up the volume, waited for the iron to get hot, and start attacking the pile of grundies, shirts and thomas the tank engine t-shirts to the latest album to be heaped with praise by internet music lovers. yet, within 10 minutes i couldn't understand what on earth i was listening to. was this alt.americana, powerpop, indie, or a late night bar band jam session? whatever it was, it was a bloody mess. no definition in the instrumentation, completely uninspiring vocals. and something i was never going to understand.
dear god, it made me feel old.
luckily, i was working on the lateshift and so had the chance to listen via headphones. i decided to give the album another go. whoa .. what's that - a gorgeous heart tugging melody ? guitars all beautifully fuzzed ? horns sections ? on headphones the separation of the instruments is dealt with brilliantly by band member dave newfield, allowing the listener to focus and enjoy far more of the vast numbers of instruments involved. making you wonder just how many make up this broken band.
so, you open the package to investigate further, and what's the first thing you see : 'we hate your hate' proclaimed large and proud across the centre of the artwork.
ilovethisband
there are literally hundreds in broken social scene, with several of the core members being in various other bands on the canadian scene they decided to form a sort of 'supergroup', and just make an album full of straightforward pop songs, having all done their art project soundtracks elsewhere.
so, does this huge cast (and the guest list is ram packed as well) cause trouble when listening ? hell no!
the music is consistently great. from the polyphonic spree like sunshine harmonies and horns (trust me - the horn break @ 4.5 minutes during album closer 'it all gonna break' will send shivers down your spine), to the delicate my bloody valentine guitar layers ('superconnected'), to the mellow hip hop grooves of 'hotel' (with k-os as guest). in fact, the sheer variety spread across these 14 tracks may originally come over as sprawling, and indeed they do sprawl, especially during the 7 minute 'bandwitch' with its plucked acoustic guitar melody, lazy piano groove, and simplistic backing vocals that even after the extended looseness is over, you wish it just went on and on. there is something so .. so huggable about the end results, that by the 4th listen, you hear a band obviously in love with making such audience pleasing music, that you too will be swept up in the euphoria, and possibly feel glad that at last there is a band not caring whether a bass line is giving it that gang of four factor, or whether the guitars are agit enough for you. instead, all that matters are if the chord changes touch your senses, the vocals caress the stresses away and the general sonic chaos works as a complete whole, which in case i haven't made it clear enough for you - they do.
there is a limited edition with even more up for grabs, but i have yet to get past the album proper, that i can't even tell you whether it's as good, and nor does it really matter when the maincourse is as good as it is
easily the best album of january 2006 i have heard.
easily.
as i said : ireallylovethisalbum