So even now - some 10 years after Drew and Canning first started laying down ambient instrumentals in a Toronto basement for their debut BSS release Feel Good Lost - that eternal question still lingers: what exactly makes a Broken Social Scene album a Broken Social Scene album?įor some, it's that omnipresent element of randomness and chaos - which is a fine theory and all, except Forgiveness Rock Record was approached on arguably the most stable footing the band has ever had, built as it was around the core 2007-08 touring line-up of Drew, Canning, drummer Justin Peroff and guitarists Andrew Whiteman, Charles Spearin and Sam Goldberg. In hindsight, Broken Social Scene's period of supposed inactivity was arguably their most productive stretch yet - yet another contradiction that makes up the byzantine BSS myth. In the time thats elapsed since the release of 2005's self-titled opus, we were more than tided over by the 2007 release of founding member Kevin Drew's solo album, Spirit If, followed a few months later by co-founder Brendan Canning's own solo set, Something for All of US - both of which were released under the 'Broken Social Scene Presents' banner, both of which were supported by tours that featured careerspanning setlists, and both of which featured pretty much the same group of players you hear on this new BSS release, Forgiveness Rock Record. So yeah, it's been five years since the last Broken Social Scene album, but it also hasn't.

Broken social scene album