Saturday, January 22, 2022

Saturday Sounds - Broken Social Scene - Old Dead Young

Broken Social Scene are probably the best band to come out of Toronto since the turn of the century. I first encountered their music when their album, You Forgot It in People, started getting a lot of airplay. It instantly became one of my favourite albums. In 2004, I took my 10-year-old daughter to see them at a free concert in Harbourfront and we've seen them twice since. For Christmas this year, she got us tickets to see them at Massey Hall in April, and I'm hoping that this damned pandemic doesn't get in the way. 

They've just released a new album called Old Dead Young which is a collection of B-sides and rarities. Pitchfork has this to say about the album in their review.

Old Dead Young, the band’s new career-spanning B-sides and rarities collection, won’t necessarily give you the same ecstatic lift of their more beloved material. For the most part, these 14 tracks are a pretty subdued listen. They’re not the band’s best songs, and most of the record isn’t particularly memorable. Old Dead Young is best appreciated as the first retrospective from a band whose music is already all about self-mythologizing and looking back at the past.

If you're new to the band, you might want to listen to You Forgot It In People first before diving into this collection. If you can find it, check out This Movie is Broken, which was partly filmed at their 2009 Harbourfront concert, the best concert I've been to in this millennium. 

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