Salient

An Album you should own if you don’t already… According to Tom Baragwanath

By Tom Baragwanath | 3 Sep, 2007

Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People

This astoundingly beautiful album from awkwardly named Montreal Indie group Broken Social Scene remains the most significant musical discovery I have ever made. My response upon initially hearing this record was akin to the feeling one often gets whilst reading a particularly poignant passage in a novel or poem; the reader identifies with the sentiment expressed to such a large extent that he or she feels as if the words have been pulled from his or her own mind. Listening to this album gives me a similar sensation.

You Forgot It In People is an intricate, sprawling canvas of movement, colour, and tasteful noise. The layers of instrumentation and vocal melodies are so dense as to yield new discoveries to the listener after dozens and dozens of spins. What also lends this record so much longevity is the fact that the band can’t keep still. Unsatisfied with sticking to just one style, they switch and flex from song to song. From the straightforward fuzz-rock of ‘Almost Crimes’ to the summery jam of ‘Pacific Theme’; from the ambient instrumental warble of ‘Late Night Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries’ to the sweeping scope of ‘Lover’s Spit’; from the handclap groove of ‘Stars and Sons’ to the folk recline of ‘Looks Just Like the Sun’, Broken Social Scene deliver arresting, moving, and utterly satisfying music.

Few bands have attempted such an eclectic sequence of songs whilst still remaining cohesive and direct. In this way, You Forgot It In People represents the White Album of modern Indie music. To some, this comparison may seem blasphemous, and so it should. No one should compare a band with the excellence of the Beatles lightly, but Broken Social Scene are ultimately deserving of such an accolade.

Broken Social Scene have achieved perfection in the form of recorded music with this album. The songs present here are saturated with equal measures of joy, melancholy, humour, fear, and love. If humanity had a sound, this would be it.