ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: MAY 4TH 2010

Forgiveness Rock Record should probably have been a bigger deal than it actually was. Five years since their last release proper, Broken Social Scene were a very different animal. And yet this doesn’t always have to be perceived as a bad thing; the sprawling sound of You Forgot It In People and 2005’s self-titled are part of what made them so appealing. If you didn’t know where the next song was going to take you, it’s possible that they didn’t either. On Forgiveness, their sound is more honed with particular focus on instrumentation and song structure. Stylistically, however, this is possibly the band’s most diverse collection of songs. Spread over sixty three minutes, it traverses the full width and breadth of the form indie music had taken up to 2010. Unfortunately this appears to be the reason that the album didn’t quite click with many long time listeners. This is the sound of a band so attuned that not only have they developed a signature sound, they’ve perfected it.

Opener World Sick rises through almost seven minutes, building layer upon layer of instrumentation and bombastic production that crescendos in a showering chorus of breathtaking momentum. Framed perfectly by its hushed intros and outros, it’s almost an extended preview of what’s not to come. Texico Bitches and Forced To Love, though jovial in their initial displays, suggest a darker and more sombre topical stance. The progressive Art House Director, with its peppy, back-forth verses and high-spirited bridge act as a distant sister track, a few tracks removed, to the magnificent Meet Me In The Basement. Here instrumentation soars through layers of guitar and marching drum beats to almost regal proportions. On the flip side, you have songs such as Sentimental X’s and Romance To The Grave, pieces that appear designed to fluctuate the mood and take a more subdued course through an album that nonetheless flows like a river of changing faces. Perhaps the biggest and most pleasant surprise here comes in the form of All To All which still holds up as a pure bolt of sonic indie pop bliss on each successive listen, all breathy vocals floating over layers of minimal clicks and beats. Vocals provided by the lovely Lisa Lobsigner almost detract from the fact that Leslie Feist is still sorely absent.


Ultimately it’s the space in between the songs and the room that Broken Social Scene have given these songs to breathe which holds up on repeated listens. At times it may appear that this record disconnects only to reform and again disband. It’s in those repeated listens that slowly reveal a fabric which at its core is as cohesive as it is diverse. It’s this fine balance which makes Forgiveness Rock Record a statement on restraint and order as well as one of persistence. The fact that it’s also as panoramic in its sound as it is beguiling is just a big bonus for this listener.