The Funnel

So...where do you begin with this monster of an album. How about I explain the story behind the album.

Broken Social Scene is a collective of musicians from Canada. With an average of 9 members, but sometimes going as high as 15, there pretty much isn't a band in Canada that doesn't have some ties to BSS. Here's a list of bands:

Metric
Stars
KC Accidental
Apostle of Hustle
Feist
Do Make Say Think
The Dears
Placebo

And that's just the most popular ones (yeah yeah, don't worry, you probably haven't heard of any of them). For their first album, these guys get together and make a traditional electronic post-rock album. It's a great album...but really only a few stand out tracks...nothing to write home to mom about. BUT! then, having decided they were art-ed out, they change directions. They say "Hey, let's try a pop album." And in doing so, they create one of the most original and sprawling pop albums ever. A modern classic.

To call this a pop album is almost hindering it. This covers every different type of pop you can imagine. It's straight forward, yet complex. In fact...the only thing "pop" about it are the song lengths, each clocking in around 4 minutes. I think the most striking thing about this album, is how consisten it is. Even with their style ranging from Island themes to soft folk to fast pushing rock their quality is consistent. You can still tell it's the same musicians, they've mastered their personal styles to the point that they're always recognizable.

My favorite thing about this album is the drums. Hands down. It's consistently original without being complicated. He twists simple rhythms into new and interesting sounds. For each song the drummer adjusts his style to fit the mood and genre. The drum parts are perfect complements to the swooping, swirling guitars and the strong but subtle bass.

The singing is traded between...5? people. Yeah, I think it's 5, 2 males and 3 females. Don't ask me to name them. But they each have their own style and it seems each song is tailored to fit the current vocalist. The best example of this is on Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl. In this "anthem" Emily Haines' looped-sounding vocals mix and match perfectly with the music. Her voice fades to be another instrument in the ever repeating melodies. This is a song to be experienced rather than passively listened to.

The one word to describe this album is definitely "Striking." I ended up using that 5 times originally in this post and had to go back to change it. It's the perfect description for every aspect in the album. One thing I often use to differentiate between "good" albums and "great" albums is this: When I listen to a good album, I'll think to myself "man, I wish the band would have done this with the song" and then not a few seconds later that exact thing will happen. But when I listen to great albums and I have that same thought, the band pulls something completely out of no where, destroying that thought in my mind and making me ask how I could have been so stupid as to have thought it would fit. They whip something out that works 10x better than anything I could have thought of. That is definitely what BSS does...several times in each track.

This album will be a grower for a lot of you. When I first listened to it, I liked the first few tracks and one of the last tracks. That's it. The others just bore me. But I think on the 3rd listen, it hit me. The only thing that could be considered a weakness on this album is its eclecticism. And once you realize the scope of the album, it fails to be a weakness. The true strength of this album lies in its eclectism and how the band suceeds in sounding focused and control while utilizing such a broad range of influences.

I'm cutting this off here, because as usual, my thoughts are scattered. I could probably go on for a lot longer, but I figure you guys don't like to read this anyway.

Here it is:

http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0XIJIP2B9ATMT3CVD6GDGM95T6

(grab the album quick...it took me a few days to write this post.

-Ben