Broken Social Scene "Forgiveness Rock Record"
With the new album, the first Broken Social Scene record following the acclaimed Broken Social Scene Presents... series, the band decided it was time to try something new. As a core six-piece who had spent most of 2007 and 2008 on the road, Drew, Canning, Spearin, Whiteman, Goldberg and Peroff spent early 2009 working on new material in Toronto. The pairing down of the band's massive personnel list for the first time proved extremely fruitful; they created spacious songs written as a band by a band, resulting in more cohesive, melody-driven compositions than previous BSS output. Recording both in Toronto and Chicago, and working with producer John McEntire - a musical hero for many of the band's members - they found a fresh perspective on their own sound; this continued to fuel the creative process, resulting in nearly 40 songs written in and out of the studio, a number of which were put together as the first new Broken Social Scene record in five years. The album features guest turns by BSS alumni: Leslie Feist, Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars, Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric, Jason Collett, Ohad Benchetrit of Do Make Say Think and Years, John Crossingham, Marty Kinack, Leon Kingstone and Julie Penner. Uniquely, the song "Sentimental X's" features Leslie Feist, Emily Haines and Amy Millan singing together for the first time on the same song.
