Our Faces Split The Coast In Half (Ft Feist & Murray Lightburn)
Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day)
7/4 (Shoreline) (Ft Feist)
Finish Your Collapse & Stay For Breakfast
Major Label Debut
Fire Eye?D Boy
Windsurfing Nation (Ft Feist & K-Os)
Swimmers (Ft Emily Haines)
Hotel
Handjobs For The Holidays
Superconnected
Bandwitch
Tremoloa Debut
It?S All Gonna Break (Ft Feist)
Her Disappearing Theme
Canada Vs. America
Baroque Social
No Smiling Darkness/Snake Charmers Association
All My Friends
Major Label Debut (Fast)
Feel Good Lost (Reprise)
All The Gods (Bonus Track)
Broken Social Scene began in 1999, born of a theme that has become the stalwart of the band's existence - friendship in tough times. Kevin Drew was a talented, but essentially unknown musician who specialized in lovely b... more »edroom instrumentals. Brendan Canning was a vet of several Toronto almost-made-its, including hHead, Len, Spookey Ruben and By Divine Right. Cocooned in a Toronto basement in the winter of 1999-2000, Drew and Canning worked on their elegant debut, Feel Good Lost. Though mostly instrumental and somnambulant, this recording was the template for the band's growth - Drew's restless creativity was tempered and focused by Canning's gracious experience. Around this yin-yang orbited numerous talents such as Leslie Feist, drummer Justin Peroff, Stars' Evan Cranley, and Do Make Say Think members Charles Spearin and Justin Small. A live band began to grow and Drew and Canning's partnership expanded to a group of cagey vets (Andrew Whiteman, Bill Priddle) and wide-eyed "kids" (Peroff, John Crossingham, Metric's James Shaw and Emily Haines). For a year, Broken Social Scene was comprised of whoever showed up, playing whatever was written the day before. In 2002, after months of recording, re-recording and countless mixes, Broken Social Scene released You Forgot It In People to great critical acclaim. The album won a Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. The band spent the next two and a half years on the road, touring the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. In 2004, Broken Social Scene released Bee Hives, a collection of outtakes from the fruitful You Forgot It In People sessions, which included the haunting version of "Lover's Spit" sung by Feist. 2005's Broken Social Scene was a fitting title for the band's third record - an apt aural representation of the band's friendship. The album is messy, overrun, irregular but spirited, passionate, honest and hopeful. It landed this indie band from Toronto on TV screens across North America, on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and scored another Juno win for Best Alternative Album. On May 4, 2010 Arts & Crafts will release Broken Social Scene's follow-up to the acclaimed self-titled record. The new album, Forgiveness Rock Record, is co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto. For a limited time only, Broken Social Scene will be available once more as a special edition, double disc package including the full album plus a bonus EP entitled EP To Be You And Me, featuring seven additional tracks. Broken Social Scene with the bonus EP To Be You And Me is the perfect addition to the Broken Social Scene catalog collection, which includes the popular titles below.« less
Broken Social Scene began in 1999, born of a theme that has become the stalwart of the band's existence - friendship in tough times. Kevin Drew was a talented, but essentially unknown musician who specialized in lovely bedroom instrumentals. Brendan Canning was a vet of several Toronto almost-made-its, including hHead, Len, Spookey Ruben and By Divine Right. Cocooned in a Toronto basement in the winter of 1999-2000, Drew and Canning worked on their elegant debut, Feel Good Lost. Though mostly instrumental and somnambulant, this recording was the template for the band's growth - Drew's restless creativity was tempered and focused by Canning's gracious experience. Around this yin-yang orbited numerous talents such as Leslie Feist, drummer Justin Peroff, Stars' Evan Cranley, and Do Make Say Think members Charles Spearin and Justin Small. A live band began to grow and Drew and Canning's partnership expanded to a group of cagey vets (Andrew Whiteman, Bill Priddle) and wide-eyed "kids" (Peroff, John Crossingham, Metric's James Shaw and Emily Haines). For a year, Broken Social Scene was comprised of whoever showed up, playing whatever was written the day before. In 2002, after months of recording, re-recording and countless mixes, Broken Social Scene released You Forgot It In People to great critical acclaim. The album won a Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year. The band spent the next two and a half years on the road, touring the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. In 2004, Broken Social Scene released Bee Hives, a collection of outtakes from the fruitful You Forgot It In People sessions, which included the haunting version of "Lover's Spit" sung by Feist. 2005's Broken Social Scene was a fitting title for the band's third record - an apt aural representation of the band's friendship. The album is messy, overrun, irregular but spirited, passionate, honest and hopeful. It landed this indie band from Toronto on TV screens across North America, on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and scored another Juno win for Best Alternative Album. On May 4, 2010 Arts & Crafts will release Broken Social Scene's follow-up to the acclaimed self-titled record. The new album, Forgiveness Rock Record, is co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto. For a limited time only, Broken Social Scene will be available once more as a special edition, double disc package including the full album plus a bonus EP entitled EP To Be You And Me, featuring seven additional tracks. Broken Social Scene with the bonus EP To Be You And Me is the perfect addition to the Broken Social Scene catalog collection, which includes the popular titles below.
CD Reviews
Not Just Another Rock Band
Tom | Toronto,, Ontario, Canada | 12/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Here's five good reasons for liking this album:
1) The concept is interesting. The band, with between five and seventeen members, shifts shape like an amoeba, with some songs sounding relatively spare and stripped down while others provide a wall of sound approach.
2) The music is fresh and innovative, simultaneously off-the-cuff and structured, borrowing heavily from the My Bloody Valentine approach whereby vocals and instrumental details are often buried deep in the mix while still contributing to the overall atmosphere of the song.
3) The hooks are often gorgeous and get catchier with repeated listenings, meaning that the more familiar you become with the music, the more you will take from it.
4) Again like My Bloody Valentine, vocal duties are divided between male and female lead singers and both are equally effective and evocative.
5) They don't sound like anyone else.
In short, this is a CD that you will likely still be playing
frequently in six months or a year. Just really, really good music.
"
Eccentric Brilliance
Scott Louis | Houston, Texas | 10/14/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Broken Social Scene, a loose collective of up to 17 people from all around Canada, has a well-elaborated history. De-facto band leader Kevin Drew (Do Make Say Think) and Brendan Canning have, since 1999, been committed to their mission of creating beautiful indie rock. Broken Social Scene's debut, Feel Good Lost, was an album-long instrumental that left many (me included) wondering where this supercollective was going. Then, in 2002, "You Forgot it In People" hit like a hydrogen bomb. Here, we had musicians famous for making 10-20 minute epics compressing themselves into a 4 minute pop song. And it really, really worked. YFIIP was nearly flawless.
"Broken Social Scene" was, due to the immense popularity of YFIIP, one of the most widely-anticipated albums of 2005. Anyone familiar with the band could not wait to see the direction they went next. This record, it turns out, is an interesting hybrid of their first two recordings. There are remnants of the instrumentals of "Feel Good Lost," somehow magically intertwined with the pop feel of YFIIP.
The real difference in these albums is the feel of the recording. YFIIP was tight, composed, and put together. It was BSS at 10am, ready to take on the world. This album gives us a glimpse at BSS at 730, just waking up, not yet ready, but still brilliant.
That being said, there is something a bit...off about this record. It almost feels like there are TOO many good ideas going on at once, and that they are thrown together when the creation of two songs would have been more appropriate. That is not to say that this record is not glorious, just that it takes some time to get used to. There are many times on this album that hit you with a formidable wall of sounds, and it takes multiple listenings to decipher what is really going on.
Producer David Newfield (who apparently "became obsessed" with trying to top YFIIP) makes some of the riskiest moved behind a console I've heard in quite some time, but somehow manages to bring together innumerable instruments into a cohesive, if sometimes intimidating, whole. The lyrics are subdued to the point of being indecipherable in places, and instruments are brought to the front of the sound when they are least expected.
When it all boils down, this is a great record. Let there be no mistake about that. Does it top "You Forgot it In People?" Probably not. But then again, to compare these two records is not really even fair. BSS are a new band every time they get together to record, and we should treat this as a new release by a new band. And in that regard, this is a fantastic album. There is much aural experimentation, brilliant musicians toying with time signatures, and a crack producer having fun with bringing together a myriad of sounds. Highly Recommended."
One of 2005's best.
Vicious Lips | 10/05/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"'You Forgot It In People' was one of the best albums of 2003 and on this self-titled follow up, the same pop genius resides in each track, taking Broken Social Scene to new heights on the Canadian music scene.
The only way to say what this album really feels like is to call it psychedelic-synth-folk-pop. There's no other way to describe it. It's a combination of eclectic creativity, blending uplifting ambience with gloomy atmosphere, modern in sense of electronics but old-fashioned in sense of watered-down old-school pop. Sometimes the band sound like they're singing from the bottom of a stuffed biscuit tin and at other times, they sound like they're screaming from a passing truck.
The moment 'Our Faces Split the Coast in Half' comes on, you're sucked in the Broken Social Scene circle of chimes, bustles and sugar-laden garbled pop. Everything familiar on YFIIP is replayed here, but in a way that you can't really comprehend. The genius of this band lies in how they can make the familiar sound so fresh and innovative each time.
The guitar work, synths and keyboards on 7/4 (Shoreline) is classic Broken Social Scene and when combined with Leslie Feist's distorted vocals, it invokes a dreamy albeit loud mish-mash of swooning melodies, hazardous twist and turns that leave you breathless like a slap of cold rain.
Then theres 'Superconnected', easily the best track on the album with its tawdry yells, vitriolic anthems and fancy guitar work combined with the said biscuit tin shouting bursting into a frenzy of thumping and Coke-can kicking and whirrrring of all sorts of machines.
Like their Canadian counterparts The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene's creative prowess lie in the fact that they combine just enough electronically generated melodies with established norms of pop that their music seems hardly contrived, but suitably fashioned to please even the most discerning of listeners. I would recommend you to go out and buy this album, and let the 7 track bonus CD be an added incentive to listen to what would undoubtedly be one of 2005's greatest musical release.
"
Up and down
C. Gockman | Holland, MI United States | 10/06/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First thing I will say is this is a very different album than the masterpiece "You Forgot It In People". Now, I say that it is a step down from their previous effort, but I remember that it took me many months to realize the absolute perfection of YFIIP.
One thing I can state now before this album is embedded in my brain is that the lyrics are not as good. One of the things that bothers me about this album is the lines that are mediocore that are repeated. Lines like: "If you always wake up late you're never gonna be on time" or "I really don't want to think about those things no more". There are also a few songs that just get 'lost in the shuffle' like "Superconnected", "Fire Eye'd Boy" or "Canada Vs. America(from the bonus EP)" that just seem like formulaic Broken Social Scene rock songs which I never thought I'd hear myself say after hearing the diversity of YFIIP. Nonetheless every song on this CD is good, a few just blend together. A complaint for me, but what others may prefer, is that there is a lack of instrumentals on this album which is a Broken Social Scene trademark, especially since the debut Feel Good Lost was almost entirely instrumental. The 2 instrumental songs (unless you count the humming on "Our Faces Split The Coast In Half" as instrumental) both clock under 2 minutes which is also very disappointing.
On the brighter side, this album differs a lot from YFIIP. One of the things I love about this band is that they have been evolving since day 1 not only in members (2 to 17) but also in music, and that is apparent on this album. This album touches on genres that I never thought (or hoped) that they would touch but they do it so well. Another constant among Broken Social Scene albums that stays with this is that you discover something new everytime you go through the album. I've listened to YFIIP atleast 200 times and I still pick up on things I never noticed before which is the beauty of their layered sound. The best part about this album and the only (but huge) improvement to You Forgot It In People is the climactic ending. I don't want to give anything away for you "first listen purists" like me, but this sounds like an ending fit for the last Lord of the Rings or Star Wars movie. With the song clocking out at 10 minutes and going through various changes it heavily differs from the slow anti-climax "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart" on the previous album.
Although it may sound like I am disappointed with this album, it is only because it doesn't quite stack up to my "album of the decade" You Forgot It In People. This is truly one of the best albums of the year, easily stacking up against "Takk..." , "Frances The Mute", or "In Between Dreams".
For those of you who already know Broken Social Scene, I'd recommend you listen to the EP first to transition you into the new sound, hear some of the best instrumentals from this band, and hear the reprise of the classic Feel Good Lost song. Otherwise, just do what you please. Either way, listen with an open mind and enjoy :)"
Well...
N. Turner | 12/30/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"i can see why alot of people are put off by this album, its alot different than BSS's last record "you forgot it in people"...but after an album that great, what direction do you go? Do you make the same album again? Do you pull a Neutral Milk Hotel and quit while you're ahead? or do you venture into entirely new territory?
you forgot it in people was all about a gentle, breezy flow. the songs came and went and left you feeling happy and satisified. This self titled album is a different beast all-together. This album is about confusion, worry, and doubt. Alot of people dont like the production job Dave Newfeld did, but personally i love it. I think the washed out sound fits perfectly with the vibe the album is going for. I mean, they've said that they had a different version of "ibi dreams of pavement" with cranked up vocals all ready to go, but they shelved it. I can see why...the song sounds amazing buried beneath a wall of sound. these tracks, to me, sound exaclty the way they should.
And production and sound aside, theres some flat out amazing songs on this album. "7/4 (shoreline)" is probably the best song i've heard all year(but of course im a little biased towards Leslie Feist). Song for song i personally enjoy it more than you forgot it in people, but i try to avoid comparing the two. One major plus as far as im concerned is the more dominate role horns play in the mix, adding a huge emotional punch to alot of the tracks.
ibi dreams of pavement, 7/4 shoreline, fire eye'd boy, windsurfing nation, swimmers, handjobs for the holidays, superconnected, banwitch, it's all gonna break, there's just too many FANTASTIC songs on this album to hold any negative technical opinions against it, because the songwriting is so superb. But, unlike you forgot it in people, this isnt an album just anyone could pick up and enjoy. It's more difficult, but i love it just the same."
Track Listings (22) - Disc #1