I’m listing this under “mushrooms” instead of “album reviews” not because I’m on mushrooms when I do this review but it is true that things are somewhat strange and I don’t know of any other way to put it. But it’s really because this is too halfassed of a post for it to be called a review (not that that has stopped me before.) Anyway, I haven’t listened to this album (Broken Social Scene’s self-titled 2005 album) for awhile and I got an urge to listen to it (I think because their newest album, Forgiveness Rock Record is out today – I haven’t heard it yet.)

This is my track by track reaction to the album as I listen to it now, for the first time in awhile.

#1 “Our Faces Split the Coast in Half” is a pretty interesting way to start things off. It’s one of those things where I enjoy listening to it, but it doesn’t make a huge impression on me. But I also find myself listening to it again repeatedly on occasion. I sort of like that it’s a bit of a mess (there’s a lot going on and I don’t understand any of the lyrics) but I think I also find it frustrating on some level as well.

I’ve always been more of a “bit of a mess” sort of guy, but lately I’ve been enjoying more minimalistic or in cases where a bunch is going on I’ve been preferring to listen to more carefully crafted music (Ludwig Van Beethoven for a very good example.)

Anyway I just played the song three times in a row and I sort of lost attention every time, of course I am trying to type this at the same time. The thing that does kill me about this first song is that I always think that two or three different songs have actually gone by when it’s just the one. I think I usually think about 10 minutes have passed when it’s really less than 4 minutes long. That’s either evidence that it’s really trippy or it’s a bit boring. Right now I’m not sure what the answer is. But I am at least somewhat intrigued by it regardless.

*Edit* The next day I listened to this on speakers rather than headphones and I couldn’t make it more than a minute. I just thought it sounded awful, like a complete mess of noise.

#2 “Ibi Dreams of Pavement” is even more of a mess than the previous track. The vocals are all over the place in the mix (I think there’s a backwards reverb on them) which makes them very difficult to understand. The bit where it builds up with the noise and the horn is pretty cool.

#3 “7/4 (Shoreline)” as you may have guessed from the title this song is in 7/4 which is a pretty unusual time signature for a pop rock song (I’d guess it got this title because this is how the band referred to it when they were working on it.) Again, I’m not sure what I really feel about this. I feel like I should like it, but it doesn’t really hold together as something great for me.

#4 “Finish Your Collapse And Stay For Breakfast” is a nice spacey ambient intermission. Can’t think of much else to say about it at the moment.

#5 “Major Label Debut” is making me think that really maybe I should actually be on mushrooms to get much enjoyment from this album.

#6 “Fire Eye’d Boy” is making me think that I don’t really like Broken Social Scene very much. It’s like I like them in theory but when I actually listen to the music I just find it kind of obnoxious. But I may be getting in a bit of a bad mood because I feel a headache coming on. There are some catchy bits in this song but they’re hard to find under all of the mess.

#7 “Windsurfing Nation” is pretty tripped out. Yeah, man. I dig all of the experimentation and the unusual song structures – but it makes it a difficult listen. Of course, I see that as part of the point. This isn’t easy listening. And there are some pretty catchy little bits in these songs underneath all of the abstraction and noise. At times during this song (and really throughout the album) there seems to be more than one song playing at once.

I actually have a memory of listening to this song some years ago and having it really blow my mind. Of course I may have actually been on mushrooms at the time. That little snippet of rapping is definitely unexpected.

#8 “Swimmers” is quite a bit more “direct” than most of the preceding songs. It has a nice feeling to it and the female vocals are nice. It doesn’t make a huge impression on me though. I know I’ve listened to this album in the past (at least a few times) but I don’t really recall this song at all.

#9 “Hotel” has a really cool riff which sounds as if it was recorded backwards on something (I have no idea what.) When the horns come in at around 2 minutes that’s a pretty cool moment. There really are these nice moments in this album, but they usually don’t last for very long.

I think I’m coming to the conclusion that this album is a bit like some Of Montreal albums in how it hits me. Like it’s too much of a purposefully random mixing of different song segments together. Like it’s difficult for the sake of being difficult, without a deeper meaning. I may be very wrong on that, but that’s how it hits me and I find it a bit frustrating to listen to.

#10 “Handjobs for the Holidays” – You know how I said some of these songs sound like there are two songs going on at once? This one is more like three songs going on at once. It’s just a damn mess and it’s giving me a headache. I only made it half way through this one, had to move on.

#11 “Superconnected” has some pretty cool drums.

#12 “Bandwitch” has a nice feel to it and I like the bit the female vocalist does. But like most of the stuff on this album, it kind of sounds like I’m lost in the static between songs rather than actually listening to a song. I dig it. I realize this is sort of what they were going for, but I have to be in the right mood I think.

Yes, I know I didn’t finish. Oh well, that’s as much as I want to do. Actually it’s much more than I wanted to do. I think I’ve decided I’m actually not going to bother with their new album, I don’t think I like this band very much. I feel kind of bad, because I feel like I should like them. I like what they are trying to do in a way, but I just don’t find it enjoyable to listen to and that’s really the ultimate thing, isn’t it?

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