June 12th, 2010 by Roxane Moaveni
7/10
Forgiveness Rock Record is magnificent, except for its dodgy beginning. If I were part of the 1,458-piece group, I might petition that “World Sick” is unnecessarily long, scrap “Chase Scene” completely and replace it with a longer “Meet me in the Basement”, and maybe hide “Forced to Love” somewhere between tracks 7 and 12. Looking past the fact that I usually skip the first four songs, this is a record that really, really rocks. It’s not quite as go-to as You Forgot It In People or epic as their self-titled album, but it’s worth a damn. Although I’m saddened by the lack of Leslie Feist, “All to All” with Amy Millan of Stars is smooth and airy enough to tide me over.
Overall, although it’s still detectable in some places (especially in “Meet Me in the Basement”), Forgiveness Rock Record is a step away from Broken Social Scene’s traditional sound. It was supposedly written mostly by way of full-band jam sessions, oriented around forgiveness and finding resolutions to issues written about in past BSS songs. Although the songs seem more single-driven rather than retaining BSS’ familiar continuous flow of alt-rock melody, the upbeat songs are more fiery and the slow tunes even gentler than before. This prevented me from making a strong connection to the album as a whole piece, which I’m used to with BSS, but I like it regardless.
The band is currently touring, and I highly recommend you drop everything to go see them perform. I was lucky to catch their opening show in San Francisco and it was almost a transcendental experience. No bullshit. It was amazing.
March 4th, 2010 by Roxane Moaveni
8/10
Bradford Cox is a rare, unexpected, sincere talent. The moment he appeared to start setting up the bare stage with a wooden stool, acoustic guitar, and about 8 effects pedals, a fan shouted “YEAH BRAD” and ooh, you should have seen the bashful look on his gaunt face. Cox’s stage presence is warm and endearing – the refreshing opposite of my expectations. In between hilarious bantering with the (overwhelmingly adoring) audience was a long, masterfully executed, fan-pleasing set. There was a perfect balance between variation from recordings and familiar, energy-boosted favorites, along with a couple unrecorded and one Deerhunter song. In particular, “Walkabout” sans Noah Lennox became a wholly acoustic and rather intimate melody; both “Attic Lights” and “An Orchid” proved to me that Cox is in fact a human being with emotion, the depth and sincerity in his belting must have given pause to even the drunkest hipsters there; and “Sheila” was just perfect, much of the crowd sang along for that one. This was a different kind of show for me, I can’t remember the last time I saw a concert with just one guy on stage, let alone one guy creating such huge, complex, delicate sounds. It’s a whole different atmosphere, more personal maybe, and I enjoyed it immensely. I was up front (by the way, right before the encore he gave me a thumbs up!) and could see a couple of the GAMH employees waving their hands in a “wrap it up” motion as Cox kept going on about the preserved bat in a glass box he bought earlier that day. He was concerned about what the airport security were going to think of him and his bat. Indeed. Before concluding with “Logos,” the best line of the night occurred:
Loud dude – “Hey Brad!”
Cox – “What’s up homie?”
“When you’re done can I have your pick?”
“You can have it now dude!” He throws the guitar pick to the man. “But now the song is gonna suck, bro.”
It was an excellent time, I highly recommend you get tickets when he comes your way.
