Broken Social Scene! Here's a blast from the past. They were big back when pitchfork was huge - or, at least, when it was huge in my parts - but never completely took hold for me, "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" aside; I'd completely forgotten but I even saw them play live, at a St Jeromes Laneway Festival back when the festivals were actually in the laneway.
Still, they and their music have had a way of rippling forward, directly and via their sprawling set of members, and I knew they were still making music at longish intervals, so I was receptive when the Feist-vocalled title track (and lead single I think), "Hug of Thunder", came around all joyously building indie-epic, and just as well, because the album is just terrific. There's crash and clatter, thunder and thump and skidding pop shimmer; I tend to lean towards the relatively more pop end of their spectrum, like "Protest Song" and "Gonna Get Better" (which makes me think of Mary Margaret O'Hara's deathless "Body's in Trouble"), but it's all good here.
Still, they and their music have had a way of rippling forward, directly and via their sprawling set of members, and I knew they were still making music at longish intervals, so I was receptive when the Feist-vocalled title track (and lead single I think), "Hug of Thunder", came around all joyously building indie-epic, and just as well, because the album is just terrific. There's crash and clatter, thunder and thump and skidding pop shimmer; I tend to lean towards the relatively more pop end of their spectrum, like "Protest Song" and "Gonna Get Better" (which makes me think of Mary Margaret O'Hara's deathless "Body's in Trouble"), but it's all good here.
