BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE: YOU FORGOT IT IN PEOPLE (2002)
1) Capture The Flag; 2) KC
Accidental; 3) Stars And Sons; 4) Almost Crimes; 5) Looks Just Like The Sun; 6)
Pacific Theme; 7) Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl; 8) Cause = Time; 9)
Late Nineties Bedroom Rock For The Missionaries; 10) Shampoo Suicide; 11)
Lover's Spit; 12) I'm Still Your Fag; 13) Pitter Patter Goes My Heart.
Only one year has passed and Broken Social
Scene have already swelled from a guest-dependent rhythmic ambient duo to an
eleven-piece orchestra, bashing out idealistically epic indie rock — in their
own words, «anthems for a seventeen year-old girl», although most of this stuff
is perfectly suitable for seventeen year-old boys as well (maybe it is the lack
of any sort of «heaviness» in the arrangements that prompted them to address
their female audiences). Their aspirations are noble, their ambitions humble,
and their allusions subtle. Nevertheless, the reproachingly titled You Forgot It In People fails to be that
beautiful, long-coveted masterpiece that the critics had been waiting for, hurrying
up to lavish all sorts of praises on the album when it came out.
The basic problem is that, despite switching to
the traditional «rock song» format, the styles and attitudes remain essentially
the same — this is still little more than nicely sounding, polyphonous
background music, yet somehow, we are now supposed to be memorizing the themes,
singing along to the anthemic choruses, and agreeing with its goal of «teaching»
us something. I honestly tried doing all three of these things, but, unlike the
average BSS fan, shamefully failed on all counts — the melodies were found
unmemorable, the choruses generally uninviting, and the band's «soulfulness»
hopelessly stuck in no-man's-land somewhere between Nick Drake, Bruce Springsteen,
and Jeff Tweedy, all of whom they try to be at the same time. As you can
imagine, it would take a bunch of miracle workers to do that, and even if there
is one miracle worker among the
eleven current members of BSS, it is pretty hard to spot him / her from among the
other ten.
Do not get me wrong: nothing is overtly «bad»
here, in fact, from a purely technical angle, the album is unassailable —
genuine and diverse instrumentation, competent sound layering without any unwarranted
chaos, pleasant, unaffected vocal tones, obscure, but not altogether
meaningless lyrics, in short, everything within the limits of good taste and
intellectual inoffensiveness. I fully understand how, for instance, all those
people whose minds were just blown by Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot could want them to be re-blown with this
record. But Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had
«the spark» — actually, above everything else, it had a strong focus on hooks
and personality. Broken Social Scene, in contrast, «focus» on... well, on a
broken social scene.
It will suffice to make a first conclusion
based on the album's first proper song, ʽKC Accidentalʼ, named after Kevin
Drew's first band (the hazy Floyd-ian instrumental ʽCapture The Flagʼ is the
formal opener, but it is only a brief ambient overture) — a few initially discordant
guitar notes and violin scrapes quickly give way to a fast-paced anthem in the
«over-the-waves» paradigm: deep rolling guitar waves, seagullish whistling
violins, and electronic sirens wailing their way over the surface. But without even
a single genuinely exciting part, this anthem only packs the technical ingredients for success — somewhere
along the way these guys seem to have forgotten that a massive collective sound
still has to have a great backbone, one that would still sound attractive when
recorded at a piano or on acoustic guitar by one guy on a demo tape.
This is actually a proverbial truth that would
very soon be made use of by BSS' Canadian partners, Arcade Fire, and this is
why the equally anthemic Funeral is a
modern masterpiece whereas You Forgot It
In People is, for the most part, an impressively tasteful bore. When they
revert to their old «moody» self, e. g. on ʽPacific Themeʼ or on the album
closer ʽPitter Patter Goes My Heartʼ, they are not overreaching their grasp;
when they dip into the freak-folk of ʽStars And Sonsʼ or the pomp-rock of
ʽAlmost Crimesʼ, they are.
Only two songs on the entire album struck me as
being out of the ordinary. The above-mentioned ʽAnthems For A Seventeen
Year-Old Girlʼ almost accidentally hits upon a beautifully tense vocal /
instrumental sequence in the chorus — which works even despite the vocals being
masked by a (seventeen year-old?) wheezy chipmunk effect; and the immediately
ensuing pop rocker ʽCause = Timeʼ has a deliciously emotional riff popping out
of the speakers around the 2:30 mark — and coming back in later. Consequently,
these two songs have plain old heart-grappling hooks, unlike others that just
have vague atmospheres and cool-sounding titles (although in 2002, thirty years
after the hip intellectual freshmen had invaded the pop music business, who's
to judge exactly how cool a title
like ʽLate Nineties Bedroom Rock For The Missionariesʼ is supposed to look?).
Oh, actually, speaking of titles, the album was
supposed to receive the Mark Knopfler Annual Reward for ʽI'm Still Your Fagʼ, but
got sidetracked at the last moment as the jury became convinced that it is rather
sung from the perspective of an unjustly deserted and psychologically
traumatized cigarette butt. Besides, melodically it is a somewhat boring mix of
folk and bossa nova — were it given a major stadium riff on the ʽMoney For
Nothingʼ scale, the controversy over lines like "I swore I drank your piss
that night to see if I could live" would have been much higher. But who really cares, as long as it's only a bunch of
unknown Canadian hobos we're dealing with here?
I refrain from an overt thumbs down, if only
out of respect for how much real sweaty work went into the final product — and
an additional bonus of several really really pleasant moments — but as far as
my own paradigm is concerned, You Forgot
It In People does break the golden rule of «staying adequate»: it bites off
far more than these eleven people might chew. Want it or not, they are just your average, regular,
well-meaning, self-educated indie kids, and they do not know the meaning of
life — heck, they do not even properly understand the meaning of getting eleven
people together in one studio. Listenable and pretty, yes, but never great, and
definitely overrated back in its time.
Check "You Forgot It In People" (MP3) on Amazon
I definitely disagree with your assessment of this album- it's one of my all time favorites. I understand where your argument is coming from though, as BSS songs rarely focus on memorable melodies. To me, that polyphonous sound that teeters on chaos without ever succumbing to it provides more than enough appeal. I agree that Anthems and Cause=Time are the two best tracks here.
ReplyDeleteI bought this yesterday based solely on your review of the album. Is that strange?
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