Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 25/01/06
Label: City Slang

Yes, they're Canadians. Yes, they use pretentious song titles, like "Finish Your Collapse And Stay For Breakfast". And there's quite a few of them: which means that, by law, Broken Social Scene must at some stage be compared to the mighty Arcade Fire. An action that does few favours for either band.

As a revolving collective of musicians, including members of Stars and The Dears and of which Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are the only mainstays, Broken Social Scene are arguably too many individuals for their own good. Or maybe, not enough individuals. Whichever it is, on this, their third album, there's a deficit of both personality and ideas.

It is not a terrible album by any means; just an unfocussed and sprawling one. And that's not a compliment. As punters at London's Cargo will have witnessed last December, this is a band with much potential, but one that doesn't know when to stop. Ruining a perfectly fine evening by simply playing for far too long, they seem incapable of distinguishing their strong points from the weak. Instead, like the Andrex puppy, Broken Social Scene just go on and on and on…

There are certainly interesting fragments. Washed along on a great storm of sound, "Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day)" is a fantastic verse crying out for a chorus that never quite materialises. Ditto "Bandwitch" and "Major Label Debut" - a mightily pretty four and a half minutes that quickly descends into dicking around. With trumpets.

Elsewhere, proceedings are reminiscent of "Boces"-era Mercury Rev or "Daydream Nation"-era Sonic Youth. Shallow echoes of the recent past. Only "7/4 Shoreline", the album's highlight by a country mile, manages to rise above the indistinct and undecipherable. Graced with a vocal from Leslie Feist, this perfect pop song brings some much needed clarity, although in the end not much brevity. They still manage to shoehorn the trumpets in at the end.

Too much of the remainder is just sonic fluff, and from what is supposed to be an alternative supergroup this is deeply disappointing. Maybe that word itself - alternative - needs redefining. Perhaps we've moved full circle from punk and embraced a new era - one that takes the bad bits of the early '70s and shares them with worst of the early '90s. Progressive rock meets shoegazing. Preposterous titles meet songs about nothing.

Which means that Broken Social Scene aren't the new Arcade Fire. The bad news? They might be the old Grateful Dead.

    by Adam Webb