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Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene


The long-awaited follow-up to 2002's smash sensation You Forgot it in People. Three years may not seem like a very long time, especially when you considerthe average amount of time between albums for most bands, but for Canadian indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene, it feels like an eternity. Nobody expected You Forgot it in People to etch itself into the brains of tens of thousands of music lovers the way it did, and since Broken Social Scene is actually composed of nine musicians from other bands, its been very hard for them to get back together to work on new material. And the time seems even longer when you consider that fact that so many of the artists involved have had huge success recently in their other projects (Stars, Feist, and Metric, especially). Critics seem to be split on this new self-titled album. Many see it as just an exceptional an effort as the preceeding masterpiece. Others are less enthralled, but no one seems to be willing to say Broken Social Scene is less than awesome.
I will say this: in my opinion, this album is nothing spectacular outside of the two track I'm featuring here. Then again, I haven't listened to the album as a whole as many times as I have with many of the other albums from this year, so it may grow on me yet (in fact, I'm pretty sure it will).
First, "7/4 (Shoreline)" showcases the crazy kids of BSS doing what they do best, working as one big group of kids who just want to rock out. Its big. Its massive, in fact. And lively. Hurrah.
"Windsurfing Nation," though, does something I never expected from the BSS collective: they've made a perfect club remix in an original song. I can not imagine this song playing at any club anywhere without every single person on the dance floor going nuts. With loopy guitars dripping like wine and about seven layers of vocals and manic handclaps and Leslie Feist's excited whelps of "We won't be what you want us be, oh no!" There's even some good old funky white rapping! This is not a song. This is a joint!

7/4 (Shoreline) MP3
Windsurfing Nation MP3


The Decemberists - Picaresque


I was wary going into this third full-length from the Decemberists. I was a huge fan of both Castaways and Cutouts and Her Majesty, the Decemberists, but could Colin Meloy and company really keep up the brilliance on a third full-length? Their EPs so far had been solid, but different. I was pleasantly surprised by Picaresque, possibly their best album to date.
"The Engine Driver" uses lovely acoustic harmonies to build a platform of folky comfort as Colin does what he does best, tell us a story, in this case, one about being unable to ever really let go of a lover who has left. An engine driver, a county lineman, a writer of fiction, and a money lender all repeat the same words: "And if you don't love me, let me go."
"The Mariner's Revenge Song," however, is the song Decemberists fan's have been waiting to hear from Colin ever since our first taste of "A Cautionary Tale" back on Castaways and Cutouts. "Mariner" is a first-person narrative of a boy who swears revenge on the vagrant sailor who breaks his mother's heart, takes her money and leaves her sick and dying. The boy, follows his mother's dying wish, "Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters, drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked clawing at the ceiling of his grave," and it leads him on a rather grand and exciting adventure which I won't ruin for you here. Just go ahead and listen to the 8:47 epic tale. I will say that this song has become a fast favorite of the band's live show.

The Engine Driver MP3
The Mariner's Revenge Song MP3

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