![]() “Anthems” has spent the past two decades flitting between temporary and unlikely homes to form its lasting legacy. ![]() It’s impossible to catch the song with your bare hands, but also impossible to walk away unmoved. The only entirely female-sung track on the album, “Anthems” is also a star-making turn for Haines, whose lyrics are cut-and-paste snapshots that exude fraught nostalgia, the likes of which would be snuffed out by extraneous words. It’s an impressionist version of a tearful ballad, with wisps of banjo, guitar, tom-toms and vocals gradually locking step into a structure-averse buildup that peaks and then immediately dissolves into ghostly reverberations. Zion, and many othersiįading in after the playful, wide-eyed “Pacific Theme,” the song kind of comes out of nowhere after You Forgot It in People’s rollicking first half. “Anthems” itself features Metric’s Emily Haines and James Shaw, as well as the prolific Montreal-based violinist Jessica Moss, who’s played with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire, A Silver Mt. Originally released in the band’s native Canada in 2002 and more widely reissued in 2003, the album announced the arrival of an unbelievably eclectic, stacked collective, the likes of which would dominate Toronto’s indie music scene for years to come.Īt various moments on You Forgot It in People and BSS’ self-titled 2005 follow-up, you can hear members of Metric, Feist, Stars, Do Make Say Think, and Apostle of Hustle, to name just a sliver of the band’s overall constellation. This article originally appeared in the July 22 issue of Billboard.Those lyrics are repeated 13 times in a row to form the climax of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,” one of many classic tracks that make up Broken Social Scene’s breakout second album, You Forgot It in People. “It still sounds like Broken Social Scene,” he says, “but a new version - nothing but fresh potential.” ![]() “There was an endless dialogue about the arrangement,” says the 47-year-old, “but once our producer, Joe Chiccarelli, encouraged me to try a reggae feel on the bass, the song turned around.” The result: a pileup of guitars, horns, piano, beats, a flute line and pop vocals that coalesces beautifully. ![]() “The drama remains contained in the songs.”īand co-founder Canning, who scored Paul Schrader’s 2013 erotic thriller The Canyons during the hiatus, points to the creation of the sprawling track “Stay Happy” as emblematic of the new album’s adventurousness. “Friction has been ironed out with time and age,” she says. I’m sure I didn’t go up uninvited, but it’s fairly informal.” For Hug of Thunder, Engle was asked to participate in the writing process, and has grown to understand the connections - and minor tensions - within the group. She joined Broken Social Scene’s 2010 tour to spend time with Whiteman, and says, “I’d hop for a song or two. The group’s newest addition is vocalist Engle, who also performs with her husband, BSS guitarist Andrew Whiteman, as the rock duo AroarA. “Some magical complementary tones emerge when we unify. “I love singing with other women,” she says, nodding to mainstays like Feist and Millan. As the singer of a quartet with three male members, Haines also appreciates the sisterhood within BSS. “It feels like we’ve come back to You Forgot It in People,” she asserts. The 43-year-old singer, who has released six studio albums as the leader of synth-rock group Metric, says that the mood within the current iteration of Broken Social Scene reminds her of the troupe’s early days. “I knew this was something that was going to get me to a better place, because I was going to be around people I love, doing something I love and, eventually, in front of people that I love - the audience.” “It wasn’t the greatest time when this thing needed to re-form, but it needed to re-form,” says Drew, who has released two solo LPs and co-produced The Tragically Hip’s 2016 album, Man Machine Poem. The de facto leader of Broken Social Scene, Drew says he was cautious about getting back in the studio with the collective while coping with anxiety issues. Broken Social Scene photographed June 24 at Arroyo Seco in Pasadena.
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