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Rating:
Whirling sound worlds and basic broad-stroke fantasy where you end up looking closer, noticing a thousand shades between orange and red. One color, more colors. A distillation of deconstructed and reinvented alt-rock, continuously traversed by an extraordinary emotional tension made of melodic passages as unapproachable as they are seductive, for a record rich in nuances, of small overlapping sounds, details that appear to the ear slightly delayed, blended as they are with the rest of the musical structure. More colors, one color.
The Broken Social Scene are a group of guys from Toronto and this self-titled work is actually their third record after two official releases and a collection of unreleased tracks that quickly established them as a "new invention" in the world of alternative rock. Inventions they may know little about, but they certainly know how to play divinely. And rather than just playing, they seem to blend, melt, and mix sounds. In a very sweet mixture that reminds everyone (many) and no one. The Sonic Youth of the golden period ("Sister", "Evol") completely dried of feedback, hums, and screeches for metropolitan angst, but navigated towards the essential, the core of a sparse and enveloping melody, almost Bacharach-like, built as it is on soft interludes and stunning choruses. They are the Pixies of a Sunday morning, dozing in the warmth of blankets struck by sunlight filtering through the windows.
Horns orchestrating almost in the distance, their fanfare rising and falling and dissipating inside millions of guitars scattered in every corner, ready to chase each other like waves in the sea and the bass always in the foreground, moving, shifting and coloring the background marked by the strong and precise pulsations of the drums.
That tone in playing, askew, sexy, vaguely à la... Pixies that peek into the Tortoise repertoire and then veer towards an experimentation on the juxtaposition of sound microstructures that makes you think of Jaga Jazzist but with the addition of vocals. Vocals. And perhaps the strength of BSS in this very successful record is precisely this: a research on the alternation and interpenetration between male and female voice that overturns the very concept of "singing" in pop-rock and aims to use vocal timbres as counterparts and not as the 'end point' of instrumental sound.
A beautiful record. Truly beautiful. For this its ingenious voluptuousness made of soft atmospheres punctuated by strong and cutting rhythms, it becomes impossible not to associate it with "splendid things", on the emotional level of one's experiences.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
03 7/4 (Shoreline) (04:53)
It's a shoreline,
and it's high speed,
it's a cruel world,
and it's time
And you're walking away,
oh, where to go to?
and you're walking alone,
oh, how to get through?
if you want to get it all,
you can own what you choose,
but you want to live a lie,
and love what you lose
It's a shoreline,
and it's high speed,
it's a cruel world,
and it's time
While you're walking away,
I will try to get through,
but you've gotta know the lies,
from the lies they told you,
if you try to do it all,
it all will leave you,
if you try to steal the beat,
the beat will steal you
It's coming,
it's coming in hard,
(Repeat 6x's)
it's coming,
it's coming in-
It's a shoreline,
it's high speed,
it's a cruel world,
it's time
It's coming,
it's coming in hard
(Repeat 7x's)
05 Major Label Debut (04:28)
I'm just coming here to come down
I could be here, I could move town
Put my suits right on the guest list
Saw my pa's boy, became weightless
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
Drippy street caught me believing
Spilt their eyes on all the ceilings
Forced to live like it's a curfew
Translation: it means I love you
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
I'm just coming here to come down
I could be here, I could move town
Forced to live like it's a curfew
Translation: it means I love you
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
And I'm all hooked up
07 Windsurfing Nation (04:35)
all they want is to feel it
we won't be what you want to be, OH NO
pull it close, pull it closer, i play it close
head-to-toes tonight, recognizing the ghost
and the machine getting in between the thought and the finger.
at the brink of an evolution, we're going to linger
come on!
08 Swimmers (02:55)
I was
Waiting for you
I was
Standing around
I was
Getting older
I was
Going down
If you always get up late
You'll never be on time
If you always make it after work
ba ba dada
after work
Oh the day never comes
and I stand up
Waiting on
I saw you down there
I know you were tired
I saw you
You looked like a swimmer
I wanna be with you
All of the time
Why can't you satisfy
You look good
but you sound better
you were the best I had
If you always get up late
You're never gonna be on time
If you always get up late
You're never gonna be on time
And that's a shame
Cause I like you
I never see you
09 Hotel (04:35)
(Check it)
Disappear like I come in your world
Five is a number that I dream about
It looks like it could've been time
But that is a word that I dream about
Oh, felt good to fall life down
Oh, I think you like it, laughed when you came down
Oh, I love the lights that don't turn you to face it
Oh, you can marry my mom but
But you can't get the feel
Disappear like a corner in the wall
Five is a number that I dream about
Sleep looks like a mescaline sun
But calm is a word that I dream about
Oh, felt good to fall life down
Oh, I think you like it, laughed when you came down
Oh, I love the lights that don't turn you to face it
Oh, you can marry my mom but
But you can't get the feel
On time
On time
Disappear like a corner in the wall
Five is a number that I dream about
Sleep looks like a mescaline sun
But calm is a word that I dream about
Oh, felt good to follow it down
Oh, I think you like it, laughed when you came down
Oh, I love the lights that don't turn you to face it
Oh, you can marry my mom but
But you can't get the feel
On time
On time
On time
10 Handjobs for the Holidays (04:39)
Let me take you on, we'll get high just a little
Try to surface the calm, we don't come inside
Has it brought you closer to this?
Yeah, has it brought you closer to this?
And is it coming alive? Try to believe it
Was the question a point? I don't want your love
Has it brought you closer to this?
Yeah, has it brought you closer to this?
We've got eyes that leave us in places we don't see
We've got eyes that leave us in places we don't see
Let me take you on, we'll get high just a little
It kinda takes the joy away, we don't come at all
11 Superconnected (05:39)
Does it come in cages? Does it come in threes?
I’m tripping on all the time, I’m tripping on high seas
Never the car ride, and never the key
I’ve always been failing, but not on my knees
And you wanna believe it, and you wanna conceive
There's a different suggestion
I know that I'll belie-e-e-e-eve
And you wanna fuck this
Right between the knees
Get a little bit bloody
What does it have to do with me-e-e-e-e?
But I really don't wanna think about those things anymore
No I really don't wanna think about those things, oh
I really don't wanna think about those things anymore
And I don't really think about those things
There's a section for babies
Was it making believe?
They get you like creature's cocks
Get you like creature's creeds
I've never been sailing
Not unless it's the sea
A typical lazy eye
Staring for you and me
And you wanna collect it
And you wanna conceive
Get it all connected
With you and you and me-e-e-e-e
And I love the darkness
It's what happened to me
I was talking about stuff
I cannot belie-e-e-e-eve
I really don't wanna think about those things anymore
I really don't wanna think about those things
I really don't wanna think about those things anymore
And I don't wanna think about those things
I don't really think about those things
I really don't wanna think about those things anymore
I really don't wanna think about those things
I really don't wanna think about those things anymore
And I don't wanna think about those things
This is super-connected
It’s time to le-e-e-e-eave
This is super-connected
It’s time to le-e-e-e-eave
This is super-connected
12 Bandwitch (06:58)
(Put the little kids in the corner with their face and their eyes in the corner)
My favorite band, is a witch.
Find themselves in poet corners, and they still like to dick.
It’s of course, they’re afraid. It’s a fine, complicate.
You can find, demonstrate. Slip along, demon ways.
My favorite band, is a witch.
Find themselves with perfect mornings, and they still try to live.
The menstration. Pull it surprised a masterbation. A little morning cries
I wish on thievery of corners. Admit the cries I know he’s saying I know he’s saying so tired
They’ll have to put the little kids in the corner with there eyes and face on the floor.
You’re so fucked up now. You’re fucked up now.
Put the little kids in the corner with there eyes and face on the floor.
Put the little kids in the corner with there eyes and face on the floor.
I know you want me to keep on going
You want me to keep on going.
And you know wherever I am..
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