Other tracks to note include Sentimental X’s, Meet Me In The Basement – I struggled to squeeze these into the playlist, however. From this record, I picked All To All and Forced To Love, tracks that are both regulars on their live set list also. Here’s a great example of one their best, chaotic performances of 7/4 Shoreline when they appeared on Conan O’Brien:Īfter a break for a couple of solo albums (from both Drew and Canning), the band returned with their indie rock release, Forgiveness Rock Record, in 2010 which they described as a more outlooking record, with close to 30 people in the studio.

With a push from Pitchfork with this album review, You Forgot It In People was a hugely popular second record the following year, very different from their debut.Ī couple of tracks I picked off You Forgot It In People were the rockier Almost Crimes mainly because of Leslie Feist’s contrasting vocals and the memorable Cause = Time, ahead of their classic, slower Lover’s Spit ballad.įrom their self-titled record in 2005, 7/4 (Shoreline) remains my all-time favourite track of theirs, right from the opening chords and when the drums kick in, with Feist’s amazing vocals and the crescendo, pulling in the horns towards the finish.

It stands up so well after all these years.īut back to my 10 song selections which have been chosen from across the other studio records including You Forgot It In People, the self-titled Broken Social Scene, Forgiveness Rock Record, Hug Of Thunder and Let’s Try The After Vols.1&2.Īnd I decided to focus on the band’s albums rather than the spin-offs, solo work or other related acts such as Feist, Ariel Engle, Stars, Metric, KC Accidental, Do Make Say Think, as Broken Social Scene really warrant their own Rock Family Tree episode!įrom Disco/graph website, the interactive visualization of the relationships between musicians, bands and labels

I’m very attached to this vinyl record and while I’m supposed to pick the top ten tracks from Broken Social Scene, I think it would be an injustice to select a single track in isolation as this piece of wax really ought to be played in its entirety, so my recommendation is to embrace this soothing record from start to finish. There are myriad spin-off projects solo records, solo acts and various bands that could well be considered under this ‘mothership’, as Stuart Berman wrote in “This Book Is Broken”: Broken Social Scene exists in a state of perpetual temporariness, in a continued history comprised of passing phases.Īs the band tours, bandmates come and go, with the line up being as few as 6 to as many as 19, especially when arriving in a city and musician friends, guest horn players, are invited to perform.įeel Good Lost, their debut album from 2001, is filled with post-rock/ambient lo-fi jams and is a warm, beautiful record (Canning’s contribution to Len’s Steal My Sunshine helped pay for the recording). The origin of the band is well documented, but basically more than twenty years ago it grew out of the nucleus of a friendship between musicians Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, who then invited others to join and this creative collective began to grow from a Toronto basement apartment. This is an introduction to Broken Social Scene, the Toronto touring ensemble that is one of Canada’s finest exports.

Protest song broken social scene