If there’s been one consistency across Broken Social Scene’s discography, it’s that the whole has always been greater than the sum of its parts. Maybe that was the point: save the best for the big reveal. It follows “Halfway Home”, the album’s anodyne lead single, the one that sounds like standard-issue Broken Social Scene and set my bar of expectation for all of Hug of Thunder relatively low. Emily Haines makes a welcome return to the BSS fold with the rousing “Protest Song”, the second (and hardest hitting) half of Hug of Thunder’s opening one-two punch. Though it sounds like some of the band members had their doubts, “Vanity Pail Kids” is a total blast from beginning to end. The Leslie Feist-sung title track wraps you in its warm embrace, its layers of sound as soothing as your mother’s voice on a dark and stormy night.
If you have penchant for self-torture and a bottle of Tylenol handy to deal with the pain of mid-sentence tense shifts, meandering writing, and Kevin Drew quotes, you could try and make it through Ben Kaplan’s rather cloying, disjointed profile to get a sense of what prompted their return, but let me save you the hassle: the overarching inspiration for Hug of Thunder’s existence is that life is precious and short love and friendship are free the gang’s all together again!Īnd so they’re back, the band I didn’t miss while they were “gone”, with a record that is markedly better than I’d anticipated. It’s fitting that by the band’s account, both personal and global events in the time between 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record and 2017’s Hug of Thunder caused Broken Social Scene to reconvene. It was all getting to be a bit much, right? What with those Broken Social Scene Presents… solo albums, the movies, books, Kevin Drew (in general). If they were being honest with themselves (and they were), Broken Social Scene needed some space apart. By the time their last album, Forgiveness Rock Record came along, it was obvious that the romantic notion of a band of friends, lovers, roommates, and exes making ambitious, anthemic music together would never be enough to sustain the collective through repeated record-release-tour-repeat cycles. The perpetually polite Canadian in me feels as if I need to apologize for that statement, but I can’t ask forgiveness for honesty. Otherwise, you’ll just have to settle for it being a very good album.I didn’t miss Broken Social Scene while they were “gone”. If it’s been a minute since you’ve spent time with BSS, Hug Of Thunder could be a revelation.
As fun as Drew’s “Halfway Home” is, it’s a total ringer for the band’s 2005 breakout, “7/4 (Shoreline).” The muscular arrangements and horn flares elevate “Vanity Pail Kids” and “Gonna Get Better” much in the same way they did for the standouts on Forgiveness Rock Record. With so many talented cooks contributing to Hug Of Thunder, not to mention the significant gap between its release and its predecessor (2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record), the retreads of familiar sonic ground are a bit disappointing.
Singer Ariel Engle is the most prominent addition, taking the reins on highlights “Stay Happy” and “Gonna Get Better.” Haines shines on the breathless “Protest Song,” and under Feist’s guidance, the title track is one of the band’s best. Hug Of Thunder features just about all of the marquee names associated with BSS (Feist, Metric’s Emily Haines, Stars’ Amy Millan), but they share the spotlight with a handful of new recruits. With several members boasting their own celebrated careers, each assembly of BSS can end up feeling like a family reunion, inside jokes and all. Though guitarist Kevin Drew and bassist Brendan Canning serve as de facto leaders, BSS thrives on collaborations that yield results greater than the sum of their parts. Broken Social Scene albums have never been about raising the profiles of the group’s dozen-plus members.