Broken Social Scene – Stay Happy

With the title track of their new album ‘Hug Of Thunder’, Canadian collective Broken Social Scene displayed a softer, more tender side to their euphoric alt-rock. Led by Feist, it contemplated the “oxymoron of our lives”, meditating on the nature of time and how the past can rear its head in the present, even when you least expect it. Fast forward a little more than a month, and ever closer to the release of their new album, and the super-group are once again in a more reflective mood. On ‘Stay Happy’ though, they find the balance between their grand, soaring highs and more hushed moments. Kicking off with somewhat mournful harmonies, it soon expands into a fuller, more expansive number. In its flighty, skittering electronic melodies that weave in and out of the mix at will, they capture the fleeting nature of happiness, sometimes hard to grasp on to, often even harder to maintain. Father Time doesn’t help. With the crushing, intense breakdown with the repeated, melancholic phrase “the hours, the minutes, the seconds”, the knowledge that the slipping of each passing moment can weigh heavy becomes achingly clear, but it’s a beautiful, swooning revelation. Sometimes it’s difficult to stay happy in the face of adversity and the slow drip of time. At least Broken Social Scene make that task just a little easier just with their engaging presence.