15 Second Record Review - Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene

This, the third full-length release from BSS, is a dense album with more musicality and mature songcraft than earlier efforts. There's a fair amount of layering of multiple instruments here, and a few semi-strong singles that are sure to garner significant airplay this summer. Yet, despite the evident strides that the band makes on this album to a more cohesive and interesting place, it just seems like a more bombastic version of their 2005 self-titled album and 2003's "You Forgot It In People". And I don't particularly like either of those albums. Which isn't to say I dislike them, either. BSS has always been a meh band to me - perfectly listenable, occasionally very good, but never stelar or particularly worthy of much attention. This album does nothing to change that opinion. It's a fine record, and one I'll probably listen to again every so often when I'm looking for inoffensive backround music. But, it's not a superior record in any sense. So, for that, it gets a solid if unspectacular B-.