Everyone who plays in Broken Social Scene, past or present, has always communicated musically, and that’s why it worked. It’s not an awkward conversation about band direction, everyone is able to communicate without having to talk about it. It was the wildest ride, just trying to have this completely different sonic perspective in the songs we were doing, and a completely different approach as well.Ĭanning: It’s not like there was any fake, “Okay guys, we’ve gotta make a pop song,”. I feel as if there was a freedom, but also an urgency. Kevin Drew (BSS Co-Founder, Keys and “Backwards Guitar” on “Anthems”): At that time, it was all about impressing each other and trying to keep up with whatever was happening in the room. Their 2001 debut, Feel Good Lost, was a mostly instrumental affair, but they had a more adventurous, collaborative process in mind for this new material.īrendan Canning (BSS Co-Founder, Bass on “Anthems”): Talented as Kevin and I may think we are, it’s great to have other people on base when you’re a band. In 2002, the original Broken Social Scene core of Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning were recruiting members for their second album. Here is its story, as told by those artists, as well as a few key others. In others, it feels mysteriously timeless: it is specific but universal, comforting but opaque. In some ways – namely, its folky, twee melodrama – it is distinctively 2003. The song’s not the only enduring classic from the album - ”Lover’s Spit” in particular has been licensed for a litany of film and TV syncs, and also got some visibility from a name-drop in Lorde’s “Ribs.” But “Anthems” has a separate legacy that feels almost divorced from the group of artists that made it. These days, Haines views “Anthems” as “A song that’s definitely achieved that thing that we all want a song to do – which is outlive us all and welcome everybody in its own way with a life of its own.” Somehow, a humble tune wafted out of a Toronto basement and into the lives of many. The World soundtrack to a Meryl Streep and Tracey Ullman guest appearance at a BSS show, from a cover by gothic indie-folk singer-songwriter Nicole Dollanganger to an interpolation by rapper/comedian Open Mike Eagle, this song means many different things to many different people. From hormonally charged AIM away messages to irreverent memes, from the Scott Pilgrim Vs. “Anthems” has spent the past two decades flitting between temporary and unlikely homes to form its lasting legacy. It’s impossible to catch the song with your bare hands, but also impossible to walk away unmoved. The only entirely female-sung track on the album, “Anthems” is also a star-making turn for Haines, whose lyrics are cut-and-paste snapshots that exude fraught nostalgia, the likes of which would be snuffed out by extraneous words. It’s an impressionist version of a tearful ballad, with wisps of banjo, guitar, tom-toms and vocals gradually locking step into a structure-averse buildup that peaks and then immediately dissolves into ghostly reverberations. Zion, and many othersiįading in after the playful, wide-eyed “Pacific Theme,” the song kind of comes out of nowhere after You Forgot It in People’s rollicking first half. “Anthems” itself features Metric’s Emily Haines and James Shaw, as well as the prolific Montreal-based violinist Jessica Moss, who’s played with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire, A Silver Mt. Originally released in the band’s native Canada in 2002 and more widely reissued in 2003, the album announced the arrival of an unbelievably eclectic, stacked collective, the likes of which would dominate Toronto’s indie music scene for years to come.Īt various moments on You Forgot It in People and BSS’ self-titled 2005 follow-up, you can hear members of Metric, Feist, Stars, Do Make Say Think, and Apostle of Hustle, to name just a sliver of the band’s overall constellation. Those lyrics are repeated 13 times in a row to form the climax of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,” one of many classic tracks that make up Broken Social Scene’s breakout second album, You Forgot It in People.
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