Broken Social Scene: Broken Social Scene (Arts & Crafts)
released: October 4, 2005
rating: **1/2

Go ahead, Pitchfork, gush about Broken Social Scene releasing a record and going on tour. It's not gonna make me like them more. I mean, they're not THAT amazing. So they've got 15 people in the band. Woop-dee-freaking-doo. I would have done the same thing if I could find all the people. The Canadian band's last record didn't impress me (for some reason it won a Juno award). A couple decent indie rock-type songs with a nod to the late '80s/early '90s, though the rest wasn't very significant. The same thing pretty much goes for this self-titled third outing. Seriously, a lot of what they're doing here is indeed interesting. That's if you can sift through all the instruments and vocals that sometimes make it seem like the record is playing in another player at the same time 20 seconds behind. The last track is a little epic, but come on, with that many people, they could do a whole lot more. -Kenyon