Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People (2002)

Since Broken Social Scene released the amazing "World Sick" from their upcoming Forgiveness Rock Record, I've had my ridicullionth rediscovery of this album.

On You Forgot It In People, Broken Social Scene had gone through some major changes. Since their debut Feel Good Lost, featuring mainly frontmen Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, for You Forgot It In People, they had gone to harvest their fellow Canadian musician-friends, forming a collective of 10 members - including Leslie Feist and Charles Spearin of Do Make Say Think. 5 additional musicians guest the album. Naturally, this doesn't sound much like the experimental post-rock of Feel Good Lost. The experimentalness is however contained, but this time with pop-songs. And the progression is immense.

You Forgot It In People's status as a classic is perfectly deserved - I'd argue that this is up there among Funeral and In The Aeroplane Over the Sea. It is as good as perfect, not containing a moment of filler from start to end; it is epic, but never tiresome, and it offers a diversity most good albums can dream of, which keeps it interesting at all points. It starts off with the modest "Capture the Flag." The intense combo of "KC Accidental" (the title referencing Charles Spearin and Kevin Drew's former band), "Stars and Sons" and "Almost Crimes" is contrasted by the relaxing "Looks Just Like the Sun," that also keeps the album from getting overwhelming. "Pacific Theme" sounds like a summery landscape, containing some truly awesome production (like the rest of the album, but even more so), then blurring into the fan-favorite "Anthems For a 17-Year-Old Girl," the most obvious pop-song, featuring Emily Haines' vocals on helium. The completely relaxed "Cause = Time" becomes the amazingly creative and catchy mostly-instrumentals "Late Night Bedroom Rock For The Missionaries" and "Shampoo Suicide." "Lover's Spit" is perhaps the biggest fan-favorite, but also the only song on the album I don't really like. "I'm Still Your Fag" features typical Kevin Drew-lyrics, while the outro, "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart," is basically an instrumental version of "17-Year-Old Girl." And by the time of its ending I'm usually stunned, having to sit for some minutes to clear my mind, and to realize what just happened.

You Forgot It In People

This is also the album that launched Arts & Crafts, the canadian label co-founded by Kevin Drew.