![]() ![]() Recall “7/4 (Shoreline)”, where they stood together to face the oncoming storm. The key difference is that before, the band always exuded a relentless optimism, even in the face of all reason. Like an old group of friends reuniting for drinks and catching up, it’s familiar and free of grand expectations. ![]() The result is a large, communal atmosphere, as if they’re all in the same room jamming together. Fortunately, they avoid the stilted awkwardness of Arrested Development season four as nearly every song contains at least half, if not more, of the 19 featured musicians, including Kevin Drew, Leslie Feist, Brendan Canning, Emily Haines, Amy Milan, Andrew Whiteman, and more. With a sprawling family tree that branches into dozens of other bands, assembling everyone appears a daunting task. That comfort comes partly in the sense of hearing the entire band together again. Seven years since their last album, they’ve returned with Hug of Thunder to provide reassurance to a world even more broken than when they last left us. Throughout the 2000s, they stood at the forefront of indie rock bands speaking out against the Bush administration, raging against an insurmountable foe. Though the members of Broken Social Scene aren’t a religious group, their music has always been filled with a cathartic urgency awaiting some sort of reckoning, going back to when they were shouting “It’s All Gonna Break” at the top of their lungs. Preachers have prognosticated the end of the world as long as recorded history exists. The proverbial question lingers in the air: Now what? After three more instances, she stands alone on the roof sobbing, realizing she was wrong again. When it doesn’t, the pastor announces the date was wrong and reschedules a new Armageddon, but members of her congregation, including the woman’s family, lose faith. Because I think we've always been a band that's been a celebration." True to his word, Drew and company have rendered Hug Of Thunder exactly that.In the opening to season three of HBO series The Leftovers, a woman in the 1800s climbs her roof to prepare for the end of the world, an apocalyptic flood her church predicted will arrive. In a recent interview, Broken Social Scene's de facto leader Kevin Drew cited the Paris terror attacks of 2015 as a wake-up call, one that spurred the group's return: "It just sort of made us want to get out there and play. That doesn't mean, however, the group isn't reacting to the less-than-ideal state of the world. Rather than angry, it's a bittersweet confection that dissolves into a breakneck bridge of soaring guitar heroics. Similarly, the title of "Protest Song," one of the album's standout tracks, is not indicative of its sound. ![]() She's more downbeat, yet no less evocative, on the elegantly brooding "Victim Lover." "Gonna Get Better" belies its title by sticking to a subdued groove and a swirling, contemplative tone - the feeling of flipping through folders of old photos, letting the rush of memories come. A member of the offshoot AroarA with Broken Social Scene's Andrew Whiteman, she lends piercing elation to "Stay Happy," a burst of symphonic pop with a massive yet laid-back beat. When it comes to a mix of ethereality and strength, new vocalist Ariel Engle is no slouch. Later on, the album's celestial title track erupts into a typically majestic chorus, complete with lit-major attention to storytelling and symbolic detail, led by Broken Social Scene breakout star Leslie Feist who pulls off a Kate Bush-level of otherworldliness. "Halfway Home" is an upward spiral of a song, buoyed by washes of orchestral euphoria and weightless, male-female harmonies worthy of My Bloody Valentine. After an atmospheric instrumental opening harking all the way back to Feel Good Lost, the band kicks in with the anthems. The band has been mostly silent, studio-wise, since 2010's Forgiveness Rock Record - the various members of its loose-knit roster keep themselves busy in other high-profile acts such as Feist, Stars and Metric, not to mention the occasional solo album - but the Toronto collective is at last set to return with its fifth full-length, Hug Of Thunder (out July 7 on Arts & Crafts).įeaturing all 15 original members of the band (Broken Social Scene has never done minimal), Hug Of Thunder does not skimp. The group's ambient, experimental 2001 debut, Feel Good Lost gave way to the wide-angle vision of its 2002 breakthrough, You Forgot It In People, an album of giddy highs and moody lows. Before taking a break of seven years from releasing albums, Broken Social Scene established itself as one of indie rock's most epic practitioners. ![]()
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