Lead single “World Sick” presents itself as a semi-political statement, a railing against the self-involvement that lies at the center of political strife in the world, but it’s presented in a vague and insubstantial manner that does little to illuminate what Drew’s actual point is. Yet, in the time between their self-titled album and Forgiveness Rock Record, Drew seemed to think that he had something important to say. Plus, when he does get specific, it’s usually about wanting to fuck. The man largely writes nonsensical, chaotic lyrics that serve to accurately reflect the band’s ramshackle energy rather than offer any deep insight. Thus, it’s not that much of a surprise that, when Broken Social Scene finally went back into the studio, they went in as the Kevin Drew Experience.įor everything that there is to enjoy about Broken Social Scene, Drew’s plethora of songwriting perspectives is definitely not one of them. Watch any footage from that tour, though, and you’ll find that the band’s “united front” was suspiciously focused around Drew, as his songs from both the BSS back catalog and his solo album Spirit If… were the focus of subsequent tours. Yet, as Drew, Feist and Brendan Canning focused on solo projects, Broken Social Scene still toured and presented itself as a united front. Following that, the individual members of the band seemed more focused on solo projects and side bands rather than the main collective, none more so than Leslie Feist, who became an international superstar in 2007. An album alleged to have been made in chaos, Forgiveness instead reeks of songwriter Kevin Drew’s attempt to assert himself as a bandleader as opposed to a leader of a collective by turning certain aspects of the band’s style up to 11 at the expense of the group’s cohesiveness.īroken Social Scene always functioned more as a relatively loose collection of individuals rather than as a band, but the cracks in the collective started to grow following their self-titled 2005 album. Yet, when considering Broken Social Scene’s career-worst, Forgiveness Rock Record, it’s hard to look past the album’s more hubristic aspects. Rarely, though, could one consider hubris to be a factor in an artistic decline, especially in the decidedly low-stakes realm of indie rock. There are a lot of factors to consider when this happens: personal issues could be at play, and in some cases the zeitgeist can pass an artist by. There’s no one reason why the quality of an artist’s work declines over time.
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