Remember The Humans by Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is an indie rock group and music collective from Toronto. Formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew (guitar and vocals) and Brendan Canning (bass and vocals), BSS has featured as many as 19 members… with musicians such as Feist, Emily Haines (Metric), Jason Collett, many members of Stars, Andrew Whiteman (Apostle of Hustle), and members of Do Make Say Think taking part at various points of their discography.

Remember the Humans is their sixth full length album and first since 2017’s Hug of Thunder. Part of the problem with critiquing any new BSS album is the strength of their early work: 2001’s Feel Good Lost, 2002’s You Forgot it in People, and 2005’s self-titled record are a remarkably strong start to a discography. Foregiveness Rock Record was a solid followup in 2010, as well. I wasn’t as high on 2017’s Hug of Thunder for much of the same reasons, but I will definitely say this album is better than Hug.

BSS also happens to be one of my all-time favorite bands (both recorded and live – I’ve seen them three times now), so in terms of overall discography tiers, I’d go with this:

• Tier 1: You Forgot it in People and self-titled
• Tier 2: Foregiveness Rock Record and Remember the Humans
• Tier 3: Feel Good Lost and Hug of Thunder

A solid respectable new album. If you are new to BSS, you are fine to start with this new one, but I’d quickly hit up the two Tier 1 records as they will sell you on the group, for sure.