15 Canadians came together to make this album, some from established art house bands like A Silver Mt. Zion and Do Make Say Think. Already I think I know how this album will sound. Don't get me wrong, I love A Silver Mt. Zion's first album, and I enjoy the Godspeed You Black Emperor! sound. However, with each new release the format remains the same, and becomes even more predictable. The genre has grown stale.
Perhaps it is just me, as I seem to feel this way about many indie music genres lately. Only a few albums have come out in the past year or so that have really excited me. And it has become apparent that the albums that do this manage to blend multiple genres, and blend them successfully. Some great examples of this are the latest releases by The Notwist, which blended electronic and pop, The Books bringing IDM and folk together while The Fire Show made a marriage of Punk and IDM.
And this brings me to Broken Social Scene with their latest album "You Forget in People." This is an album that melds its roots of slow paced moody rock to full blown pop. The album starts with a few minutes of ambient pop before ripping into ‘KC Accidental’ and its Mogwai'esque guitars until the end of the song with the lone exception of a pause in the middle that has some quiet chanting of words. And that is when Broken Social Scene are at their best. When they are blending genres together and keeping things dynamic; which is what they do over the entire course of this album.
Throughout the blending of genres Broken Social Scene manages to keep the music upbeat. With poppy songs like ‘Almost Crimes,’ ‘Cause Time’ and ‘Looks Just Like the Sun’ this is a perfect summer time album. However, Going back and forth between male and female singers, slow paced and fast paced this is an album that is sure to last much longer than just this summer.
I have read online somewhere that the band members were tired of doing the ‘art house’ records and they wanted to try something they haven’t done before. "Pop"; despite the horrendous names associated with this genre, sometimes there isn’t anything better than a good song that one can sing along with. And this is exactly that kind of album.
- Tyler Craft
