Broken Social Scene cast an abstract web of dream pop, shoegaze, and indie rock for their debut album,
Feel Good Lost. Essentially, it's an album of instrumentals. The title itself hints at the collective's effort in composing a lush soundscape of strings, brass, guitars, and pianos with an added dash of electronic beats. Songs such as "Guilty Cubicles" and "Blues for Uncle Gibb" alone showcase the band's well-crafted mind trip. For a first album, though,
Broken Social Scene's care in allowing each song to breathe without the constructs of fancy production and contrived lyrics is what makes the dozen-track selection so impressive. It's expressive without expressing too much.
Broken Social Scene leave it up to the mixture of instruments to draw upon some kind of palette. From the layered warbling of "Stomach Song" to the majestic horn arrangements of the gossamer "Passport Radio," the intricacies of
Feel Good Lost find a band focused on creating an inventive style of music as well as a group that is insanely ambitious. It might not catch on with indie rock fans right away and it will most likely be an overlooked debut, but its breadth shows promise. ~ MacKenzie Wilson