Go to cityslang.com now and download the track ‘7/4 (shoreline)’ featuring Leslie Feist on vocals – a perfect example of the fine line this masterpiece of an album walks between huge swelling anthems and enigmatic yet mesmerizing arrangements, bordering on collage works. 

Once described as the “indie Wu Tang Clan”, Broken Social Scene are the lynchpin in the musical utopia that has evolved in Canada, in particular Toronto, over the past few years. Featuring some 17 members, many of whom were childhood friends and all of whom happily cross-pollinate in each other’s live bands and studio recordings, Broken Social Scene are a modern-day phenomena.

The two key members of BSS are Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Kevin is also the foundation of the Arts & Crafts collective, which is at any one time “a record label, artist management, design house, distribution and production company... dedicated to the development and proliferation of beauty and greatness in all disciplines of the arts.” Lofty and wonderful ambitions one and all.

But having digested all of that, are you prepared for the embarrassment of riches that is Broken Social Scene? Somehow, it seems unlikely.

The follow up to 2002’s You Forgot it in People, one of the most critically acclaimed releases of recent years, selling over 70,000 copies in the U.S. (double that world-wide) and winning a JUNO Award (like a Brit Award, only Canadian), YFIIP is now hailed as the touch-stone album that sparked the infiltration of Canadian music on to the international map. Think: The Arcade Fire, Stars, The Dears, Death From Above, Feist...

The new, self-titled studio album from Broken Social Scene was recorded over the last two
years with YFIIP producer Dave Newfeld. Kevin Drew gives an insight into how BSS do what they do…

“We have never done ‘pre-production’ in any of our records. We have just gone in, pressed record and figured out the song half the time while we were recording, if we did not already know it by playing it live. With this new record, there is no song, that we have not played live. ‘ibi dreams of pavement’, ‘7/4 [shoreline]’, ‘handjobs [for the holidays]’, ‘superconnected’ and ‘it’s [all gonna] break’. ‘windsurfing nation’ and ‘bandwitch’, ‘fire eye´d boy’, even the slow version of ‘major label debut’, these were all invented in the studio. These were all invented by just pressing record and seeing what was going to happen.”

“This record still had to have the chaos and the feeling of drowning. The beauty and the duvet smothering the vocals and the lips. I wanted songs that sound like we were drowning while making out. You know what I mean? I wanted songs that sound like there was too much happening so you could not fucking hear anything. That was the process we wanted to go through to end up where we were.”

Broken Social Scene encompasses everything you could have hoped for – the Broken Social Scene you love – but with a maturity and brilliance that showcases their growth from the innocence heard on YFIIP.

It’s all there... the anthemic pop-rock ensembles, layers of shimmering sound and texture, insidious vocal hooks, arm-raising horn sections, even beloved quiet moments to catch your breath.

Broken Social Scene wasn’t supposed to work. It still isn’t supposed to. But some things are best left broken.

Limited edition copies of the album will come with a 7 track bonus EP called “EP To Be You And Me”.

Broken Social Scene are: Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew, Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin (Do Make Say Think), Andrew Whiteman (Apostle of Hustle), Jason Collett (solo artist), David Newfeld (producer/musician), Leslie Feist, Emily Haines (Metric), James Shaw (Metric), Evan Cranley (Stars), Amy Millan (Stars), Ohad Benchetrit (Do Make Say Think), Martin Davis Kinack, Jo-Ann Goldsmith, Torquil Campbell (Stars), John Crossingham (Raising the Fawn)

Guests: Julie Penner (Fembots), Jason Tait (Weakerthans), K-OS, Murray Lightburn (The Dears)

Broken Social Scene press quotes:
“Their third album is so densely layered with instruments that its lyrics are crushed into an incomprehensible blur. By the time they get to the climax of the closing 10-minute explosion ‘It’s All Gonna Break’ they've airlifted in the string section, the horn brigade and the ‘Beloro’ rhythm. But their excess comes off as generosity – the album’s plush and detailed enough to invite extensive exploration, and varied enough to not get exhausting” Blender
“Despite its trademark instrumental blitzkriegs, the album is remarkably uncluttered, its melodies no less cogent and tangible than anything written by Randy Newman. Which is why one might be a bit startled by how much, well, more broken this new one is.” 92% Filter

Broken Social Scene tracklisting:
1 our faces split the coast in half [vocals by Feist, featuring Murray Lightburn on guitar]
2 ibi dreams of pavement (a better day)
3 7/4 (shoreline) [vocals by Feist]
4 finish your collapse and stay for breakfast
5 major label debut
6 fire eye’d boy
7 windsurfing nation [vocals by Feist and k-os]
8 swimmers [vocals by Emily Haines]
9 hotel
10 handjobs for the holidays
11 superconnected
12 bandwitch
13 tremoloa debut
14 it’s all gonna break [vocals by Feist]