Recording The Scene

Canadian bands exist to fill your heart you joy. Pure joy. Several exquisite Canadian bands returning all in 2010 can only result in a multiple orgasm. Earth-shaking multiple orgasm. We are eagerly waiting for Arcade Fire’s performance at Reading&Leads (new songs to be played), the Stars album is on its way (22^nd of June, here we come) and The New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene are taking out albums next week. First in line for the bloodshed, Broken Social Scene and Forgiveness Rock Record.

Given the first few bites, this should be hands-down up there in the top three albums of 2010. Yes, we love tops. World Sick’s cinematic lush instrumental gets to your bones and gives you shivers down your spine. Forced To Love’s incredibly infection chorus and heavy bass hint to older BSS. All To All feels like everything around you is incredibly fragile and nothing more than a dream.

But make no mistake, all the three are growers. Each listen makes you love the songs more and more, even if the first play left you wondering whatever happened to this band. The album, unfortunately, is a grower too. Which means that it will seem corny and pointless and it will make you cry out loud for “the golden days”. Ears that’ll pay attention will understand it is not so. In fact, it’s just another reminder of the great band BSS is.

World Sick seems like the perfect choice for an album opener and it sets the mood just right. Chase Scene might seem so very different of anything they did (in fact, it resembles Yeasayer) but its crescendo is perfect. Teamed up with Texico Bitches and Forced To Love, it creates the kind of energy that keeps the album going effortlessly. All To All tones things down, so when Art House Director fully starts it feels weird: this sunny pop piece breaks the dream and might just leave you a tad confused because it feels too upbeat.

Broken Social Scene are never afraid to combine (and are pretty good) things but even so the intro for Highway Slipper Jam is a bit out of place. Once you get past the stupidity of the said intro, a beautiful, soulful song unveils itself in front of you. Ungrateful Little Father is World Scene’s brother. The two have many similarities (the opening riff, the drums, the way both don’t bother getting to the point too fast) but Ungrateful veers into a strange uptempo world instead of the moodier feel of World Sick.

Epicness takes over once more with the instrumental Meet Me In The Basement, a taste, no, a big piece of the sheer greatness of BSS. This is a perfect example of a unfolding melody: so dense, so many layers, only so few hours in this lifetime to listen to it until you know its every detail. By now, the album starts slowing down but this doesn’t mean that it gets bad. Sentimental X’s, Sweetest Kill and Romance To The Grave are perfect in the way they create landscapes and keep everything so lo-fi and emotional. And Romance To The Grave is a reminder to why good headphones are necessary when listening to this band: underneath all the layers, you can hear, coyly trying to reach the surface, one of the best keyboards ever.

Water in Hell is yet another awakening from the dream. Somewhere between Ryan Adams and Pavement and fun fun fun, it’s like these guys were just fooling around in the studio and decided to put the little joke on the record. What really seems out of place is the closing song, Me And My Hand. A bit too short, it leaves you wondering when did it all end.

And while Forgiveness Rock Record should’ve stopped at Water In Hell, this mistake is nothing more than a small crumble that can be brushed off Broken Social Scene’s coat easily. If the other Canadians bands that are too return this year will make such a great job, we will really need time to figure out our favourite three albums of 2010.

*photo courtesy of brokensocialscene.ca