BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE - REMEMBER THE HUMANS

On their sixth album in twenty-five years, long-running Canadian indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene deliver the most succinct statement of their career. Over the course of twelve songs in forty-nine minutes, Kevin Drew & co. explore life, death, ageing, and how to deal with it all. With the band effectively functioning as a giant group-therapy session for their fan base, most of whom have been on board since 2002's seminal You Forgot it in People, BSS serve a unique function in the current musical landscape. They are established enough that they can afford to wait nine years between albums (2017's Hug of Thunder was released early in the first year of Trump's first term), yet vital and familial enough to pick-up right where they left off, like reuniting with an old friend at a high school reunion. In that spirit, the band re-connected with You Forgot it in People producer David Newfeld, who hasn't worked with the band since 2005. The results are both refreshing and nostalgic, genre-defying yet still feeling like home food for the soul.

Album-opener "Not Around Anymore" immediately takes inventory of all the things that have changed over the course of the last twenty-five years, and asks the big existential question: "why bother?", ultimately acknowledging that "there's no need to... live your life here anymore, to be alive here anymore/ 'Cause it's all gone away." While this may seem like a bleak starting point for a band that have built optimism into their trademark sound, fear not. What follows are eleven songs that thematically tackle the challenges associated with getting older with equal parts experience, wisdom, and hope.

"Only the Good I Keep" shines the spotlight directly on the newest BSS recruit, Canadian indie singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas. With lyrics that vividly recall listening to Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness somewhere at a Canadian bush party circa 1995, the end result is the perfect dose of nostalgia for anyone who was an angst-ridden teenager thirty years ago. Georgas' songwriting truly shines on this track, and it becomes immediately apparent why she was invited to join this collective. While her existing body of work speaks for itself, her voice brings something new to the BSS mix, immediately setting her apart from her female peers in the band (Leslie Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Milan, Lisa Lobsinger, and Ariel Engle for those of you keeping track at home).

The Andrew Whiteman-penned "The Call" offers the only dance floor-ready song on the album, while his wife Ariel Engle offers "The Briefest Kiss," a song that picks up where her contributions on Hug of Thunder left off. Brooding and moody, her singing conveys a pain and longing not easily replicated by any other vocalist in the band.

Ultimately, Remember the Humans ends up feeling somewhat lopsided in favour of Kevin Drew-penned material, made ever more noticeable by the complete absence of any Brendan Canning-written songs. "Mission Accomplished," "And I Think of You," and "Life Within the Ground" all mine the same emotional territory, seemingly reflecting upon the passing of his mother in recent years. "Paying for Your Love" is the closest Drew comes to delivering a "classic" BSS anthem, the lone up-tempo song on the album. However, album-closing "Parking Lot Dreams" shows Drew shining at his brightest, complete with the instant-classic singalong refrain of "we got all of this and parking lots with dreams, of you and I."

The true revelation on Remember the Humans, however, is second single "Hey Amanda." Effectively employing an isolated vocal harmony to kick off the song, it's a chance to hear Dwayne Gretzky's Jill Harris harmonizing with Drew and his partner Rachel McLean in a way that we've never heard at any point previously in the BSS discography. Posing yet another big existential question, "why'd they get ya dissecting the frogs who died alone?", this lyric gets to the heart of what Remember the Humans is all about. Twenty-four years ago Drew insisted that as a society we had forgot it in people, now a quarter-century later he's pleading with us to remember the humans, and indeed our humanity.

In an era when AI is becoming uncomfortably commonplace, it can be easy to forget that there was no algorithm that brought two friends together in a west-end Toronto neighbourhood twenty-five years ago, which quickly multiplied into a collective of nineteen. The enduring power of music and friendship are the two key ingredients that have sustained Broken Social Scene over all these years. So yeah, Remember the Humans indeed!

-Leks Maltby