Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Broken Social Scenesters
With $65 in coupons burning a hole in my pocket just a week after I had $85 but could only rustle up $20 worth of stuff to spend it on (hence my purchase of the new Wolf Parade and Bloc Party's Silent Alarm), I strolled into Best Buy yesterday and pulled three discs out of the copiously-stocked endcap displays: new CDs from Broken Social Scene (yes, endcapped; at least forty copies, but alas not on sale), Fiona Apple, and Franz Ferdinand.
FA and FF are gonna have to wait until later because I'm bound and determined to get inside the BSS first -- and two full run-throughs plus a couple partials later I don't think I've begun to penetrate the shell. And I haven't even bothered to remove the "bonus ep" from its sleeve yet.
The first cut, "Our Faces Split the Coast In Half," befits a band with, let's see here, SEVENTEEN regular members. It's dense and oddly mixed, with Feist's vocals buried so low I couldn't help but twiddle with the knobs (like that's gonna do anything) to see if it was something with my stereo. It wasn't -- subsequent listenings have verified the sound is, in fact, exactly what the producer intended. Subsequent litenings have also begun to reveal a pretty good song, too -- something that wasn't exactly apparent to me after the disc first slid into the player.
Song two jacks up the drama -- and the density. So does song three, but with, perhaps, a bit more of a nod to accessibility. So it continues, song after song, until song six, "Fire Eye'd Boy," for the time being the disc's apex. On the first couple spins, it's the catchiest song here, but I'm beginning to think it's star might fade to make room for another favorite cut next week -- maybe "Windsurfing Nation," or "7/4 Shoreline" (which is, for your reference, also song three).
It seems like this disc will mature like Arcade Fire's "Funeral" did, with new favorites revealing themselves on each successive spin.
I'm tempted to compare the overall sound of this CD with Part II of YFIIP, which (as you may or may not recall) meanders a bit more than Part I, and emphasizes atmospherics over hooks. But I've only had it a day. I'm sure I'll feel different about the particulars next week, next month, next year.
However my opinion of it matures, this CD is one hell of an accomplishment for BSS, and a fitting follow-up to one of the best CDs of the decade so far. I give it a solid A.
FA and FF are gonna have to wait until later because I'm bound and determined to get inside the BSS first -- and two full run-throughs plus a couple partials later I don't think I've begun to penetrate the shell. And I haven't even bothered to remove the "bonus ep" from its sleeve yet.
The first cut, "Our Faces Split the Coast In Half," befits a band with, let's see here, SEVENTEEN regular members. It's dense and oddly mixed, with Feist's vocals buried so low I couldn't help but twiddle with the knobs (like that's gonna do anything) to see if it was something with my stereo. It wasn't -- subsequent listenings have verified the sound is, in fact, exactly what the producer intended. Subsequent litenings have also begun to reveal a pretty good song, too -- something that wasn't exactly apparent to me after the disc first slid into the player.
Song two jacks up the drama -- and the density. So does song three, but with, perhaps, a bit more of a nod to accessibility. So it continues, song after song, until song six, "Fire Eye'd Boy," for the time being the disc's apex. On the first couple spins, it's the catchiest song here, but I'm beginning to think it's star might fade to make room for another favorite cut next week -- maybe "Windsurfing Nation," or "7/4 Shoreline" (which is, for your reference, also song three).
It seems like this disc will mature like Arcade Fire's "Funeral" did, with new favorites revealing themselves on each successive spin.
I'm tempted to compare the overall sound of this CD with Part II of YFIIP, which (as you may or may not recall) meanders a bit more than Part I, and emphasizes atmospherics over hooks. But I've only had it a day. I'm sure I'll feel different about the particulars next week, next month, next year.
However my opinion of it matures, this CD is one hell of an accomplishment for BSS, and a fitting follow-up to one of the best CDs of the decade so far. I give it a solid A.
posted by Bill Purdy, 9:34 AM