Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene
Arts & Crafts.

SCQ Rating: 83%

Take out a scrap piece of paper and with a pencil, freehand, draw a circle without the lead leaving the page. Just one loop is all I’m asking for, no matter how uneven. It’s hard, isn’t it? You have nothing but hard-earned skill or luck to assist you in creating that perfect circle the first time around. Now on the flipside of that page, draw a circle again; this time sketching and outlining liberally to your heart’s content. I can’t see the finished results but I’ll assume that the second circle looks immeasurably better, mostly because you’ve had the opportunity to manipulate any mistakes and therefore cover any regrettable initial strokes. What does any of this have to do with Broken Social Scene’s latest record? They incorporate the same technique as you did on your second circle. Its production is overwhelmed, filling every crack of songwriting with a sonic frill and blind-siding you with a chaotic concoction that is so impressive it must be good. And despite the smoke and mirrors, Broken Social Scene is good, even very good, but something’s off. If only I could get through all the layers to find it…

The third record from this Toronto infinite-piece presents Broken Social Scene at their maximized, firing off all production techniques while managing, for the most part, to keep their indie-cool DIY aesthetic. ‘Ibi Dreams of Pavement’, ‘7/4’ and ‘Superconnected’ are each brilliant; they’re irrepressible, addictive, and developed on the shoulders of You Forgot It In People’s louder work. What pushes these songs beyond that sophomore record is the risks that ensure the radio won’t touch them: indecipherable lyrics, extended instrumental work (many featuring horns), and bloated running-times. I applaud all of these choices as the songs are better off, but that doesn’t prevent ‘Handjobs for the Holidays’ from being a forgettable four and a half minute bass riff. Yeah, there’s about a thousand other elements happening on top of that bass-line, but none of them have to do with the songwriting.

I’m being tough on Broken Social Scene here, but they’re talented and innumerable enough that I can point out what ‘Windsurfing Nation’ is, besides an enormously catchy, K-OS guest-starring, gauntlet - an interlude; the weaving of disassociated lyric lines and musical ideas under a percussive umbrella. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, and that’s good enough, but these instances can’t compare with the confidence that made You Forgot It In People so singular and timeless. Songs drove that album to become a modern classic; on Broken Social Scene, the driving force is style. That said, the Toronto collective have released another blockbuster that, as ‘It’s All Gonna Break’ proves, should be considered for album of the year… even if it’s slightly less provocative than their last.