Broken Social Scene - "Hug Of Thunder"

Canada's biggest Indie Pop super group has been at it for years being serious critic favorites and getting a gigantic cult following.  When I first listened to Broken Social Scene's 2001 album "Feel Good Lost", I really didn't it.  I'm seriously picky with my post-rock, and this literally did almost nothing for me, despite some of the players in the group.  Thankfully, they started getting it seriously right with   2002's "You Forgot It In People".  While I still didn't think this album was mind blowing, it was miles ahead of their debut.  The music here was so much more elegant, and I feel like some of their members were seriously getting to shine.  Tracks like "Cause = Time" and "Lover's Spit" came off as seriously timeless.  However, I still found myself a little iffy on their more Post Rock material on here.  2005's "Broken Social Scene" I felt like I continued to have a lot of the same issues with.  Some of the more straightforward tracks on here, like "Fire Eye'd Boy" and "7/4 (Shoreline)" were brilliant.  But this album had a weirdly experimental side.  This sort of gave a lot of the tracks here a seriously very wild feel, which I liked.  But on the other hand, tracks like "Windsurfing Nation" and "Major Label Debut" came off messy messy MESSY.  However, I was shocked to see just how much I enjoyed 2010's "Forgiveness Rock Record".  This album was instrumentally the super groups most bombastic and gigantic yet.  I feel like everything on this album just came off so huge and glorious, I really had a hard time saying no to it.  It's been 7 years since we've heard from Broken Social Scene, and so far these singles have sounded rejuvenated and full of energy.  Let's check in with the rest of the album.

    Now, to be honest I’m really not 100% into this short instrumental intro, “Sol Luna”.  It’s not nearly long enough to be some epic buildup or a truly elegant introduction.  But sure, it’s very sweet and pretty.  But I feel like this should have been tied in somehow to the first set of tracks.  Because this just comes off as a little over a minute of some slightly pleasant sounds.  However, Broken Social Scene’s next number is sure to wake you up.  “Halfway Home” is honestly everything I was hoping to hear from this.  This is just as epic and as huge sounding as the band sounded years ago, and I love to hear it.  It’s a new found confidence for them honestly.  I mean, they were certainly confident in the past, but after all of this time, it’s impressive to hear.  These instrumentals are just so powerful and vast and colorful.  And while the group vocals aren’t going to be for everyone, I’ve always felt like it gives a very epic feel to Broken Social Scene’s music.  Now, getting back to the instrumentals, I feel like in cases like this where the band just casually brings in a few elements of Post Rock come off so much better. It’s overwhelming really, with an epic sound that you really don’t hear these days.  It’s a great tune.  “Protest Song” doesn’t really come off nearly as grand or as epic and certainly not as overwhelming.  But as far as a straight up Indie tune goes, I gotta say this is well done.  I actually feel like the vocals come off even better on this one, creating a sort of power-pop chorus that reminds me almost of New Pornographers.  It’s really sweet though, and lyrically it’s catchy and memorable.  I feel like these are all songs that demand numerous listens however because this one seriously didn’t hit me as hard as it does now the first few times I listened to it.  But at the end of the day, I really have to have it to Broken Social Scene.  They’ve been gone for 7 years and they sound more cohesive than ever, what a damn good tune.  Up next is “Skyline”, which is by far the quietest and most ballad like track yet.  This one actually kind of comes out of nowhere, to be honest.  I really wasn’t expecting to hear a more mellow track like this on the album.  And while it’s pretty and sweet, to be honest, this really isn’t what I sign up for when it comes to Broken Social Scene.  I feel like I could have gotten this track from way too many bands.  However, I do still enjoy a lot of elements to this, like the vocals on the hook and the very vast atmosphere.  Hell, even the vocals continue to be a great selling point for me.  It’s not my favorite tune here, but you all may enjoy it a whole lot more.

    The album rolls on with “Stay Happy” which is honestly some of the cheeriest and pop-centered stuff I’ve heard from Broken Social Scene in a long time.  It’s also very patient as far as the intro goes.  I do however like the strange groove on this one that I really wasn’t expecting to hear.  It’s seriously funky and only made that much better by the horn section and some of the other lavish instrumentals.  While it’s certainly a little tamer, “Stay Happy” is still seriously epic.   It’s moments like this that actually make me totally “Get” Broken Social Scene and their fan base. It’s well produced, it’s exciting, and it’s also seriously catchy and groovy.  Then we have the bizarrely heavy and intense and heavy “Vanity Pail Kids”.  The drums on this track are ridiculous, the guitars are full of feedback, and for the most part this actually all works great.  Hell, even those horns floating through the back have so much of a mass to them.  Everything about “Vanity Pail Kids” is so much heavier and tougher than I’m used to hearing from Broken Social Scene.  However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t totally loving it all.  There are still the same grooves, as well as the same catchy group vocals that are just as spot on.  I feel like tracks like this however are seriously overwhelming, to the point where you have to take a step back after hearing a lot of this.  But my friends, the hype is certainly real.  Up until this point at least.  Things start to go downhill very fast with the title track, “Hug Of Thunder”.  This track is just trying way too hard to be some really prolific Indie track.  But for me, this is by FAR the most boring and sluggish track here, without a question. I do like a few of the vocals here, they actually come off pretty hypnotic.  Unlike the vocals though, nothing else comes off nearly as hypnotic or interesting.  This track is seriously tough to even sit through.  However, three minutes in and some of the already decent vocals get even more interesting and dreamlike.  Not only that, but the instrumentals get absolutely huge.  I want to like this track, and I DO like some of its final moments. But the rest of it is excruciating.  And honestly, “Towers and Masons” really isn’t much better at all, but for different reasons.  I do like how upbeat and animated this is, But man, this one for me is seriously VERY sloppy.  I feel like the instrumentals on this one are constantly bounding in and out of the forefront and background, and the results are hard to place and seriously sloppy.  I feel like literally any generic indie band trying to be artsy could have written this track.  On the other hand, in the last half of “Towers and Masons” at least the more orchestral arrangements do more for me.  But overall, this album is going down hill fast. 

    “Victim Lover” however, does bring the album back in favor for me.  I actually really do love the very cinematic opening to this track a lot.  And, while these instrumentals once again are very abstract, I feel like here they come off perfectly.  Here, Broken Social Scene really brings in some seriously compelling elements of Post-Rock and even some Jazz thrown in there.  The result is one of the best slow burning tunes I’ve ever heard from Broken Social Scene.  It’s emotional, it’s powerful and absolutely huge.  I also feel like they’re seriously a whole lot more focused on this one.  “Victim lover” is one of the densest tracks here by far, but it comes off just as classy as they meant it to be.  But just when I think I can relax a bit, “Please Take Me With You” is the epitome of everything that I’ve always felt is overblown about this band.  This track, while it’s supposed to come off just so deep and heartfelt, comes off completely lifeless. The instrumental on this one is even flatter, and there’s literally nothing about it keeping me awake.  And to be brutally honest, “Gonna Get Better” seriously isn’t doing much more for me.  I don’t know about you, but this one comes off to me as seriously overblown, repetitive, and boring.  And while the vocals are actually pretty sweet and performed well, it’s not enough to get me interested.  When the instrumentals begin piling up, things just get uglier on “Gonna Get Better”.  I don’t really know what they are thinking on this track, it doesn’t sound good at all, and I enjoy some pretty left-field stuff in general.  There isn’t a single redeeming quality about this one for me sadly.  Thankfully, Broken Social Scene does pull off a really great finale with “Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse”.  It’s oddly funky, and I actually really dig the sort of bleak feel to this.  IT’s actually got a really nice groove to it.  Not to mention, it’s just so vast and seriously gorgeous.  Overall, this track is a really great sound for the band.  It’s also seriously hypnotic, to the point where I really don’t mind that it took so long to get going.  But of course, it DOES get going, and the result is some of biggest crescendos and passionate vocals on the entire album.  For me, this ending was seriously needed.  

Rating: 7.1/10

Give A Listen To: “Halfway Home”, “Protest Song”, “Stay Happy”, “Vanity Pail Kids”

Overall Thoughts:  I mean, for a comeback album, this really isn't that bad at all.  It's got a lot of the more epic songs Broken Social Scene have put out in a WHILE.  But the second half of this album it's nearly as streamlined and gigantic and well put together as the first.  However, I wasn't the biggest fan of Broken Social Scene to begin with, so I'm sure some of you will dig this a whole lot more than me.