Forgiving Rock

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Records

reviewed by Garin Fahlman

Known as being the quintessential indie rock super group, Broken Social Scene has always been an entity that surprises. They seem to grab momentum out of nowhere, and perpetually rise up to the peaks of success and sink down to the depths of obscurity as if they were just flipping over a coin. They poked their many heads out for the first time in early 2001, when at the time, the budding hydra of rock had been hastily papier mache’d together by just two ambitious musicians with lots of important friends – Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Having written an entirely instrumental album, the duo enlisted the help of a few fellow indie artists to perform vocals for the live show. The resultant indie grab bag was a group that would continue to morph and grow over the years, becoming an Entourage-style gateway into the indie rock scene. Broken Social Scene became a jumping point to dozens of successful indie artists, providing fans lost in the sea of twisting musical groups and collaborations a solid ground that connected to so many other bands.

Their most recent album, coming off another trademark period of mysterious inactivity, is Forgiveness Rock Record, an album that sees the once sprawling group contained in just six of the band’s most constant members. That doesn’t mean they’ve dulled the ensemble sound of the music however. Broken Social Scene sounds as symphonic as ever, as if the years of being propped up by so much outside talent has leeched into their own abilities and they can now channel the influence of almost a decade of musical collaboration. The sounds on the album cascade through so many different musical avenues – psychedelia, electronica, folk, pop; all with such musical maturity you wonder how many unaccredited musicians are hiding in the track listings.

This album feels like their debut in a way. It is the first album where the core musicians have done most of the work by themselves, after graduating the nine year summer camp where they heavily relied on collaboration. It also feels like an homage to their history so far – they haven’t forgotten where they came from. Aside from honouring the sounds that built them, there are a few choice guest appearances on the album that fans will enjoy. If there’s one thing the album may have lost in ditching so many collaborators is the sense that a Broken Social Scene record is really just a big party. While the album is certainly fun, it’s missing the reckless abandon that defined many of their earlier records. One could argue that’s just because the band has matured – and that’s certainly true. There are compositions on the record that could only come from a band that’s been around for almost a decade.

Perhaps the album isn’t called Forgiveness Rock Record for nothing. The indie rock scene has often been labelled as ceaselessly crusading against and trying to distance themselves from anything mainstream. But on Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene create an album that in years past, would have been full of ten minute art-rock ensembles, but is instead a fourteen track record of songs that average three to four minutes. The compositions, while mature, are definitely mainstream in formula, often just being simple verse/chorus affairs. So perhaps this newest release is meant to be a “sorry” to mainstream rock for all the years of warring and distancing. It certainly makes sense – the first track sounds like they could have collaborated with U2.

Broken Social Scene proves yet again, and maybe more so than ever here, that they are a stalwart gateway into the indie rock scene, providing ingenious compositions that are easy to listen to but bury surprises throughout. Anyone who likes Broken Social Scene will no doubt love this new album, and anyone who even has the most fleeting desire to listen to this kind of music has no excuse not to give these tunes a spin: Forgiveness Rock Record is up for free streaming on Broken Social Scene’s website.