About two weeks to go until the new Broken Social Scene album Forgiveness Rock Record sees official release, but already the group has announced a second new album.
In an email sent out today, the band announced that those who pre-ordered Forgiveness Rock Record from their website will be getting a download of a second, 10-track album entitled Lo-Fi for the Dividing Lights a day before Forgiveness Rock Record’s official release. In the email band member Charles Spearin explains:
I know that some bands write their songs, rehearse them and then record them. Not Broken Social Scene. In recording Forgiveness Rock Record we did it our usual way: swimming in chaos and making it up as we go along. We started by loosely sketching out 30 songs in my garage, driving to Chicago, recording 20 of those, and then writing 20 more. The point was to never stop working. Whenever we got exhausted or overwhelmed we would take a breath, pick up our instruments and jam purely ‘for spirit purposes’. It was musical-therapy of sorts. Part of what kept the ideas flowing was Soma’s smaller, second studio where we could test out new ideas and experiment with overdubs. While John worked in the main room, this B-Room quickly became our musical kitchen where we cooked up soups of sound without the pressures time and money.
One evening, as a kind of exercise in spontaneity, Kevin, Brendan and I each took turns writing and recording minute-long “songs” with minimal overdubs just to see what would happen. We kept saying to John “we’re making you an EP!” It was a sort of first-thought-best-thought approach to music making. Within a few hours we had six lovely little soundscapes, one of which ended up being the closing song on Forgiveness Rock Record, ‘Me & My Hand’, and the rest became the beginnings of Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights.
As we continued to work on Forgiveness the B-room became more and more important as both a musical and social outlet – there are a lot of us in Broken Social Scene and it’s hard for us to sit on our hands – so naturally Ohad, Sam and Sebastian each recorded a song in the same spontaneous way. ‘Song For Dee’, the only traditional “song” on Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights, Brendan, Kevin and I recorded when we found out that our good friend Wayne’s dog died and we wanted to cheer him up.
All of the songs on Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights were recorded in Soma’s B-Room while Forgiveness Rock Record was being made. What these songs have in common is that they were all written in a spirit of playfulness and fearlessness where we could throw our discrimination to the wind and let the judges and critics take the night off. This tiny B-Room sanctuary fomented a very positive frame of mind, ultimately leading to one of the most enjoyable album-making experiences we’ve ever had. We hope you enjoy listening to these songs as much as we enjoyed recording them.
The album will also be available at some independent music stores (unknown as to what format, however!) as well as via iTunes. Here is the track listing:
1 – New Instructions
2 – Sudden Foot Loss
3 – Shabba Lights
4 – Song For Dee
5 – Eling’s Haus
6 – Professor Sambo
7 – Never Felt Alive
8 – Paperweight Room
9 – Turbo Mouse
10 – Far Out
I’m looking forward to it as much as Forgiveness, as I know these guys do create some amazing soundscapes. You can hear some of that via this post.
It also turns out you no longer have to wait until Forgiveness Rock Record’s May 4 release date to hear the whole thing. NPR is streaming the album in its entirety right now. Check it out here. I’ve already heard it twice all the way through, and have heard some amazing things, some of it, IMO, even better than the three tracks released in advance earlier. I had wondered whether this new album would feature some of the heart-stopping moments of albums passed, but fear not. Stand outs for me so far include “Texico Bitches” and “Sentimental X’s.” I can tell the album will only grow more beautiful with further listens.
Finally, you can also watch BSS perform “Forced to Love” on David Letterman tomorrow night, April 22.
Without the physical disc being actually present to appreciate, this is a lot of great news for BSS fans to tide them over until release date.
