 "Amazing!" | 2008-04-17 |
| - Reviewed By bray322 |
I just recently learned of this album, and have listened to it several times in the last few days, and am playing it now. I can't get enough of it. It's catchy as hell, fun, creative, and it rocks. What more can you want? While the songs are not without tension, it imparts to me a feeling of bliss like a carefree summer day, with its often breezy melodies and laid-back, jazzy instrumentation.
The only other BBS album I've heard so far is Feel Good Lost, which is nothing like this at all. I found that one to be on the boring/monotonous side, with very few vocals, so I would not be surprised that You Forgot It In People is an aberration like has been said in reviews here. So imagine my surprise and pleasure when listening to this, expecting more of the same. It sounds like lots of things you've heard and like, but also not quite like any of them. It still comes across as groundbreaking and fresh. This is one of those rare albums I completely enjoy from start to finish. |
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| "Fantabulous!" | 2008-01-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: ACO46UO1ARLGW |
This album is so, so great. Every song on here (except for tracks 1, 5, and the last one) is excellent, and the ones in parenthesis are OK. There is not a truly bad song on this entire album.
[...]This is totally a breath of fresh air. I think this is very original, especially because of the rotating roster of the dozen or so members that were part of the band, or at least affiliated with it, at this point, as the various musicians contribute their own sound to each of the songs.
I could listen to "KC Accidental", "Stars and Sons", "Almost Crimes", "Cause=Time", "Lover's Spit", "I'm Still Your Fag", and perhaps "Pacific Theme" (which isn't quite as good as the other six) 300 times a day for 300 days and never get tired of them. The songwriting is THAT strong. Just buy the frickin' thing. You'll be glad you did. |
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| "Frantic, Beautiful - A Must Own" | 2007-07-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: ALGOT9L5CDYF1 |
I love this album. By the end of the introductory piece, you're not sure what to expect; a pretty, stagnant collection of songs from the guys who made Feel Good Lost? Then the second song, KC Accidental, begins.
An electric guitar is strummed quietly, deliberately, and for about ten seconds your suspicions seem to have been confirmed. Then the drums crash. The song's tempo and volume are immediately doubled; layers of guitar soar while the rhythm section plows ahead. After four measures of beautiful, breakneck instrumentation, the rest of the band crash like a wave, dissolving as the lone guitar continues strumming, louder but still deliberate. After four measures of this, the band returns at full speed. The push-and-pull between the single guitar and the rest of the band continues until finally it all breaks to make way for harmonizing strings and breathy, understated vocals.
You're not sure what you're hearing anymore, but one thing is clear - there is nothing stagnant about this music. It's as though Broken Social Scene takes for granted that the two aforementioned extremes of style should be considered a range within which a band may work. One song may explore its boundaries with feedback effects and a catchy, dominant bassline; the next may aspire to test the definition of cacophony with screeching guitars and vocals that are more shouted than sung. Yet another song croons the chorus "I'm still your fag" over pretty acoustic picking and brushed drums.
In short, this is one of the richest, frantically beautiful albums I own, and I recommend it to anyone. I promise that there will be something on this album for you to enjoy - for me, it's the whole thing. |
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 "So much yet so little" | 2007-04-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3KBVVV6XCY37E |
| I grew up with The Police so take my opinion with a grain of salt but what I've heard of this album sums up what seems so wrong with this incarnation of indie rock. Too many possibilities for bands - all the effects and sub-syles replace what songwriting might be in there - they hit the Dinosaur-Jr style uptempos, grandiose strings / pianos build-ups, and psuedo-trip-hop cool-outs. On "Looks just like the Sun" a loopy, funky snare beat, acoustic guitar for mellowness and self-assured but weak vocals does not make a good song for me. The vocals just never make it beyond a vapid, quaalude style. The band reminds us their sweet studio also came with a banjo, a Rhodes piano, a real piano, and amps to mimic any guitar sound out there. I actually liked "Almost Crimes" and from another album "Hotel" and "7/4". But all in all this is well-played music that seems empty. I like overdubs and soundeffects just not the motives behind their use, and, well, overuse. |
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| "One of the best albums of all time (believe it!)" | 2006-09-17 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| These guys make creating incredible rock music appear easy. There's something incredibly natural about this album, and yet it feels wholly original. The songs are emotionally powerful and very well written, identifiying this as a standard indie rock album among the ranks of The Arcade Fire or Wolf Parade, but it also has a sense of groove and musicality to it that identifies it with almost a jazz/funk/jam-band aesthetic. I in no way mean to mislead people by making a connection between this CD and these other genres, because the sound of the album really has little to do with jazz, funk, or jam-bands, but it does demonstrate the power of this album and the skill of the musicians that they are able to strike a balance between a sense music-for-music's sake (as in tight grooves and great musicianship), which is primarly a concept associate with jazz, and concise, emotionally-loaded, structured songs that give this CD the strength of the indie rock albums we all know and love. This CD is enthralling, soft and gentle as a whisper, emotoinal, powerful, dreamy, and groovy. Its also remarkably consistant. What a f@#$ing great album! |
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| "wow." | 2006-06-10 |
| - Reviewed By chasdk |
| This album is incredible. For me this is one of those few albums that defines a time in my life. An album that for months I played over and over. An album that I've played countless times, that I have passed out to when I came home after a late night, that I have ran to, and worked out to, that I play at work for a pick-me up. It's great. It's filled with so much emotion and passion, from beginning to end its just brilliant, the entire album. The songs are composed more like classical music with sweeping scores that start off slow and steady and then build up and explode into these intense jams. I love it. You have to buy this album. Then buy their next self titled album. Then play it and play it, and play it. It grows on you. I can't wait to see them live... |
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| "Reveries" | 2006-02-20 |
| - Reviewed By cagedinsomniak |
I read the little tidbit on the band, you know like when you can listen to their CD at Borders? That's what I meant. I bought this album expecting less vocals than instrumental background. I was pleasantly surprised to see how BSS blended rock and electronic music to make a sound resembling post-punk/new age/industrial/ambient pop. It's like crossing the Nine Inch Nails, Nobuo Uematsu, U2 and the Flaming Lips, then you get the Broken Social Scene.
The songs are very mellow, which paradoxically appealed to me, since I listen to alot of loud hardcore and other genres, but this was (I'm assuming) a decent turn from them. The songs are all upbeat in their own ways, some less than others, but all positive. The music was very unique, you can either dance to it or just sit and listen, it wins. The songs produce an odd type of image that you can't really describe, but I guess it's there. There are normally lazy guitars playing a few notes in additon to both synthesized and [I think] real ones with some others (trumpet, sax, bass, etc). The songs can be described as obscure, refreshing, unique, alien, freeing, outspoken, dynamic, rising, upbeat, lazy, nihilistic, puzzling, ironic and narcissitic.
The album starts with a somewhat undetailed, but immersing track "Capture the Flag"; then goes to "KC Accidental", an energetic and uplifting track with a very powerful beat; a quiet, ambient track "Stars and Sons" with alittle more original vocals (not synthesized); "Almost Crimes", a very messy, but cleansing track, giving you the feeling of flight/movement; "Looks Just Like the Sun", a smooth jazz-esque track with poetic lyrics and poppy guitar; "Pacific Theme", a calypso type track with an edge of bass and drums--gives the feeling of sitting on the ocean shore; An obscure, but meaningful, "Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl"; "Cause = Time", a Nine Inch Nails-esque song with a softer edge, narcisistic lyrics like "They all want to love the cause, 'cause they all want to be the cause, they all wanna f*ck the cause. So take me down, down through this, kill the common one I've missed, this is the blood I'd love to shed"; "Late Night Bedroom Rock For the Missionaries", a jazzy and mezmerizing song; "Shampoo Suicide", another obscure song with a strident guitar part and interesting basslines, but when it breaks into the melody, there's chanting and singing in the background that gives the song a spinning feel to it; "Lover's Spit", a slow, flowing song; "I'm still your fag", this is probably my least favorite track, the lyrics were a bit disturbing; the final track "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart", a track that softly "wakes you up" from this reverie with a soft violin, the sun rises. It all shows that some musicians still have musical talent these days.
Buy this band's music if you are simply tired of hearing the same voices over and over (like in today's popular bands), most of the popular music sounds the same. I reccomend it to anybody who thinks that music is dying. |
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| "Short and sweet" | 2005-12-17 |
| - Reviewed By ravedown89 |
| Fantastic album. Diverse and artsy. Gutsy and folky. Explosive and tender. This is a great venture into indie rock. I have a couple complaints but I'm not going to bother, the high points override the low ones! Enjoy! Its worth the cash folks! |
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 "A very diverse collection of great songs" | 2005-09-28 |
| - Reviewed By jeremyyoung |
This is the 2nd album from Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and it's an incredibly diverse and solid collection of tunes. Musically, it's all over the shop. There's some beautiful instrumentals (Capture the flag, Pacific theme, Pitter patter goes my heart). Some great art-rockers (Almost crimes, KC accidental, Cause=time). There's some sublime balladry on show here as well (Looks just like the sun, I'm still your fag).
And Lover's spit sounds like a Radiohead song from an alternate universe had we hijacked a time machine and kidnapped Thom Yorke before he started travelling down the Weirdass Expressway. |
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| "a masterpiece" | 2005-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1OCALBNOW99UM |
This is my favorite album of any artist in any genre of any time period. I think it is the best piece of music I have ever heard. To elaborate; the lyrics are clever and stirring and earnestly sung, the music is brilliant and, as far as I have been able to tell, perfect. There's nothing on this album, no single note, that feels out of place to me, that feels wrong.
Now, without hyperbole- this is a very finely composed and played piece of rock music. Many songs are highlights; for me it's "Looks Just Like the Sun", "Shampoo Suicide", and all three of the last songs- but the reality is that I never skip through a single song of the album. I doubt you will either. And, like me, I hope you come back to it again and again. |
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