![]() ![]() ![]() “I try to do as little of reflecting as possible, although it’s impossible because you’re hanging out at home by yourself,” he says. Given both the career-spanning nature of the record and that it was put together when his career was on a pandemic-induced hiatus, it’s not surprising that the album led to some reflection for Canning. America came from the EP To Be You and Me, which came as a bonus CD with the band’s self-titled third record. Not at My Best is a frantic but melodic alt-folk curio that clocks in at just over a minute and ran over the closing credits of the 2010 comedy-drama It’s Kind of a Funny Story. Do the 95 was the ragged B-side for the Stars and Sons seven-inch back in 2001. The seven-minute-plus Death Cock is the first recording the band did with Dave Newfeld, who produced their breakthrough 2002 sophomore album You Forgot It In People before joining the act’s revolving-door lineup. But the 14 tracks on Old Dead Young cover Broken Social Scene’s entire two-decade career in the studio. ![]() BSS hasn’t been in the studio since those lengthy sessions, which produced not only a full-length album but two EPs. Old Dead Young is named after the collection’s closing track, an anthemic rocker that had only been available up until now on the vinyl version of the band’s 2017 album Hug of Thunder. “I’m just happy to clear out the closet, as it were.” “I’m happy we’re able to put out some of these tunes, where you listen back and say ‘You know what, this easily could have been an A-side,” says Canning, in an interview from his Toronto home. It’s also one of the tracks that Brendan Canning, who co-founded Broken Social Scene with Drew back in 1999, has re-evaluated since it was “left by the side of the road” years ago. Judging by some of the fan comments beneath the video, there has been a bit of a pent-up desire to hear a recorded version of the song, which appears for the first time on a new career-spanning collection called Old Dead Young: B-Sides & Rarities. Up until now, it was probably one of the few recordings available of This House is on Fire, originally an outtake from the band’s 2009 album Forgiveness Rock Record. Bathed in a red light that turns everyone on stage into gently swaying shadows, it’s a compelling performance that mixes delicate ambient rock with a beautiful vocal performance by Scene co-founder Kevin Drew. While unsanctioned by the band, the video captures them in mid-performance during a 2011 show at the Masonic Lodge at Los Angeles’ iconic Forever Hollywood, a famous cemetery and performance space. However, it's the wordy, Feist-delivered title cut, a master class in balancing mood and melody, that delivers the album's finest moments, and the best distillation of what makes BSS so venerable.There is a clip on YouTube dating back more than a decade showing Toronto’s Broken Social Scene performing the song This House is On Fire. They dial it back a bit on the dreamy, Drew-led "Skyline," a lush, midnight highway-ready affair that evokes the easy, classic rock vibe of the War on Drugs, but "Vanity Pail Kids" turns the power back on with a knotty, all-hands-on-deck electro-disco party that sees all three lead vocalists representing. Forgoing some of the elongated, atmosphere-driven instrumentals that peppered prior outings (wordless opener "Sol Luna" clocks in at just over a minute), things escalate quickly with co-openers "Halfway Home" and "Protest Song," two of the punchiest things the band has offered up in years. The shambolic, post-rock kissing cousins to fellow veteran Canadian pop army New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene's aural emissions may be less confectionary, but they're no less immediate. Leslie Feist, Emily Haines, and Kevin Drew may serve as the group's ambassadors, but BSS are a ship requiring the whole crew to stay afloat, and Hug of Thunder is buoyant with inclusiveness and cautious hope. ![]() A dense, soul-searching blast of civic-minded indie rock/alt-pop comfort food, the 12-track set is mired in the cultural and political miasma of its time, but Broken Social Scene have always been about community - Kevin Drew has suggested in interviews that the 2015 terror attacks in Paris served as the impetus for the band's reconvening. The fifth full-length outing from the substantial Toronto collective - this iteration is 15 strong - the aptly named Hug of Thunder is the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2010's Forgiveness Rock Record. ![]()
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