![]() ![]() ![]() Hiatus or not, they’re still proudly fragmented and anything but broken. Seven years have passed since the loose and ever-changing line-up built around Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning last put something out, unless you count the multiple records from the day jobs of regular contributors (when it comes to Broken Social Scene, it’s almost worth asking who in Canadian indie music hasn’t contributed at some stage). Even when things slow down on the ghostly ‘Victim Lover’ and sombre, drifting echoes of ‘Please Take Me With You’, they pick it up to grandiosely close on ‘Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse’. However, ‘Hug Of Thunder’ isn’t without its faults. The sweet and subtle title track is one of the LP’s best moments, whereas ‘Victim Lover’s use of horns make this creeping track a rich experience. Here, tracks like ‘Stay Happy’ and ‘Vanity Pail Kids’ are music as a spectacle – all raucous vocals and righteous, happy pandemonium – and it’s that communal sense of fun that ensures BSS endure. On the topic of the album’s pace, there are moments where Broken Social Scene take a more focused, downtempo approach. The spotlight isn’t on them the way it once was but, as ‘Hug of Thunder’ proves, this is still a Rolodex of pooled passions, projects and talents creating music that’s as unashamedly baroque as it is consistently brilliant in its ambition. Broken Social Scene: Hug of Thunder review strength in numbers. Returning after a seven-year hiatus with album number five, Kevin Drew’s evolving band remain as much of an incongruent collective as they do an indie supergroup. Broken Social Scene: Hug of Thunder review strength in numbers 3 out of 5 stars. After all, a lot of those acts came from Broken Social Scene. And while the latter didn’t generate the global acclaim of others, their place shouldn’t be understated, even if it was less celebrated. But if NYC felt like the centre of the universe, the great Canadian export of artists like Arcade Fire, Metric, Feist, The New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene challenged that assertion every step of the way. Back in the halcyon days of early noughties indie rock, the number of great guitar bands seemed endless. ![]()
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