Reviews

Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning

Something For All Of Us

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Review Date: 2008-07-15

Tonight I bury the hatchet.  I never thought I would do this because my anger towards Arts & Crafts runs deep, and I am not one who usually backs off a vendetta like this.  Still, I like to think I have at least some sensibility to me, and when you hear a record like Something For All of Us by Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning, it makes you rethink things. 

It’s making me think how I’ve been listening to music lately, how I figure out who to book at TWM concerts at the Rancho, and even friendships and just things about myself that I’ve been trying so hard to improve lately.  That sounds a touch absurd, I know, but there really are no limits to what beautiful music can do. 

Now: what of this vendetta that I refer to with Arts & Crafts?  If you trace back my reviews, you will find a time when I was a card-carrying member of the Arts & Crafts fan club (so to speak).  Then with the release of Broken Social Scene’s self-titled record, it started to go sour.  When Kevin Drew went and released the first “Broken Social Scene presents” record it just went from sour to straight putrid. 

I felt like it was deceitful marketing, using a name that had grown to such magnitude that slapping it on anything gave it instant credibility and buzz.  But it was BS, not a BSS record.  So this is the quandary I face with Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning’s Something For All of Us.  I remain sceptical and wonder, why not just put out a Brendan Canning record?  But I do think that this seems a lot more organic than the Kevin Drew record.  It doesn’t sound like a BSS record, although it clearly has shades of that recognizable sound.  But it can certainly stand alone as well. 

It started with “Possible Grenade”, an intensely personal track for me for reasons I won’t get into here.  But the song sends shivers down my spine and has the ability to chill me to my core.  The theme woven throughout the song of volatile relationships, disappearing, and trying to figure out mysteries that are not easy to solve has been very prevalent in my life in the last few months and continues to be.  What I like about Brendan Canning is that unlike a lot of BSS stuff, you can easily make out the words and hear for yourself the beauty of his penmanship.  The song has a quiet intensity to it that is more intense than any rock song I’ve heard this year. 

But “Snowballs and Icicles” is the song that has infiltrated the deepest part of my brain as of late.  When I first heard it on the way back from St. Catharines, I was convinced it must have been a rare, exquisitely beautiful Elliott Smith track.  If you know me well, I could give no bigger compliment than that.  With an absurd amount of repeat listens, I can now see that the vocal delivery reminded me of Elliott Smith but the ambience and subtle complexities of this song are in stark contrast.  The sombre delivery and ability to so distinctly paint a story with his words is very similar to Smith’s, who I honestly think might be the best songwriter I’ll ever hear. 

To my ears, the one oddball track on the record is “Love is New”.  Compared to the remainder of the album, this feels like an impromptu funkified dance party.  It isn’t bad, but with a few subtle changes you could find this on a Justin Timberlake record.  I have a tough time comprehending how this, “Possible Grenade” and “Snowballs and Icicles” can end up on the same LP.

Something For All of Us is the name of the record, however, and perhaps the inclusion of the above-mentioned song is just following that theme in the album.  Deep down, I still wish this record was billed as Brendan Canning’s Something For All of Us and they just ditched the “Broken Social Scene presents” part, but if this series keeps delivering beams of light like this I’ll stop complaining.  Lately I’ve been feeling like twowaymonologues.com has been doing a bit of a disappearing act with all the things on my plate.  But I can honestly say this record, “Snowballs and Icicles”, “Possible Grenade” and a great friend have breathed life right back into it.

Score: 9.2

- Dan