Spirit If... - Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew

Spirit If…

Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew
Arts & Crafts.

SCQ Rating: 81%

OMG!! What does ‘BSS Presents’ mean? Is this a Kevin Drew record or a Broken Social Scene record?!?
It’s both.
Yeah, no rocket science: it’s co-founder of both band and label, Kevin Drew, singing his songs with Broken Social Scene performing band-duties. In the first of hopefully many, BSS Presents will showcase the solo material of varied BSS members, naturally assisted in studio and tour by their bad-ass collective friends (the second volume, featuring Brendan Canning’s solo work, is due June 10th). And while many fans fretted over the future of the band and what this would sound like, Spirit If… sounds like (gasp!) Broken Social Scene – only filtered down to the songwriting direction of one member. Starting with a blissful explosion of drum, guitar and keys, ‘Farewell to the Pressure Kids’ is the best remedy to put BSS fans’ worries to rest, throwing the gauntlet down with the melodrama that made ‘Ibi Dreams of Pavement’ so thrilling. For a record as daunting as Spirit If…, it’s the first of many directions Drew careens us through.

It’s only proper that Drew kicks off this wild side-project peace-train, and he delivers on many of these cuts. ‘Tbtf’ and ‘Safety Bricks’ are very similar as brisk and fresh-faced acoustic numbers (although placed far too near to each other), but repeated listens open their subdued melodies and split that early association (chances are, you’ll like ‘Tbtf’ better for the first few weeks, than find how awesome ‘Safety Bricks’ is). Drew doesn’t play it safe on his first solo effort as ‘Big Love’, with its heavy synth and unsteady vocals, is as confident and experimental as anything BSS have done. Likewise, ‘Frightening Lives’ is unusually dark, hooking the listener with chilling keys and lyrics desperate for sexual understanding.

Where Drew’s confidence becomes taxing is in his uncontrolled overindulgence, which rears its head countless times in this sixty-five minute album. Truth is, every single song on Spirit If… begins with great promise and with such talented performers backing these songs, could’ve been a nearly flawless record. Instead, the breathtaking solitude of ‘Gang Bang Suicide’ becomes a crawl, and the fantastic guitar-pace of ‘Lucky Ones’ becomes a marathon. Our attention is stretched thin on the lo-fi hotel recording ‘When It Begins’ and snapped completely by the plodding, needless ‘Fucked Up Kid’. Don’t get me wrong, most of this lengthy material is great (except ‘Fucked Up Kid’) but that’s the problem; they could’ve been perfect (and by perfect, I do mean You Forgot It in People perfect). In these instances, Drew demands too much of us because he feels he’s giving so much of himself, but as Spirit If… indicates, less could've been more.

In classic Kevin Drew style (in case you’ve seen his live persona), he throws everything into this self-admitted “emotional mixtape” and most of it, despite the aforementioned excesses, is memorable. ‘Bodhi Sappy Weekend’ is one of Drew’s finest songs, beautifully written and expertly arranged with both brass and string sections (all at a reasonable 4.5 minutes!!). I suppose the one way Drew has played safe is that at fourteen songs and twenty-two collaborators, we’re bound to fall in love with at least half of them. It’s a gamble worth losing.