![]() These cuddling platitudes can be effective, though they seem to front load the first half of Hug of Thunder. ![]() Broken Social Scene have also always been against taking an apolitical stance, and on the AOR-inspired Protest Song, Metric’s Emily Haines anchors the proceedings with heaps of hard rock riffs over a chanting chorus that only specifies their means to dissent without saying anything at all: "We’re just the latest in the longest rank and file that’s ever to exist / In the history of the protest song." ![]() It might come across as a cop-out, directly taken from a weekend workshop on Canadian indie rock songwriting, but it never betrays their nagging urge to make you believe in the power of a four- minute anthem. " Cause if you never run, never run / How are they gonna catch you alive," a heavily reverbed Drew sternly affirms before they shoot it into the moon with drama-fueled harmonic interplay. The back-to-basics Halfway Home took six writers to concoct, and works as an inside baseball of sorts into writing the perfect indie rock song. They’ve called their latest album Hug of Thunder, and they sure as hell stand by it, delivering a bevy of large, sincere statements that come alive with meaning and beauty. It could function as a commercial advertisement, but it’s a meaningful one nonetheless.Ī song like Skyline reaffirms Broken Social Scene’s simple message. Their amiable way of writing anthems has always had the potential to reach even those sitting in the far back of a theater, and open-hearted single Skyline is certainly one of their grandest to date: the lightsome mood it carries is enough to justify the song’s lack of structure, though once it shifts gears into a pompous sing-a-long, regal horns and all, all is forgiven. It’s better to think of them as a drama troupe with likened musical commonalities than a careerist band, one that finds the time to get together ever so often with a unionized message that will appease their niche audience. As it is with larger-than-life supergroups, there’s an absence of personality that works to their advantage. And why would they - if anything, it was a good reason for a group of friends to come together in ceremonious harmony. Still, it never felt like Broken Social Scene were breaking up. The seven-year hiatus between now and 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record seemed inevitable, but also necessary: it was a chance for them to put the project on pause before they overstayed their welcome, to allow themselves to evolve with their own individual endeavors. The Canadian collective has persevered for close to twenty years regardless of the impermanent nature of cyclical rock trends, which has caused each of them to reinvent themselves without much foresight. ![]() But the name has really taken a life of its own. Not that there’s any formality to how the name Broken Social Scene came to be, as it kind of came up jokingly during a discussion key members Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew had over Drew’s elaborate use of keyboards (he jokingly named one of his pre-BSS projects John Tesh Jr. Broken Social Scene Hug of Thunder (Arts & Crafts )īand names are sometimes taken for granted.
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