Why is this one of my Desert Island Discs?

Broken Social Scene is one of my all-time favorite bands, so I was definitely picking one of their albums for a Desert Island Disc. The challenge was picking this album or the self-titled followup from 2005.

This album, though, has it all... ragers like "Almost Crimes", quiet songs like "Looks Just Like the Sun", instrumental songs like "Pacific Themes", and classics like "Cause = Time", "Lover's Spit", and "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-old Girl"... 13 songs, just under an hour and infinitely repeatable.

The album came out at a time when we lived in Seattle, a few years out of college... so young and very few real responsibilities. We were figuring out who we were as adults, living in an amazing place, seeing lots of great music. Definitely a formative time in my life.

This album continued to grow on me and plant deeper roots when we moved back to Buffalo... especially with our neighborly kinship with Canada. It was the soundtrack of many roadtrips to Toronto, including seeing them twice at their Field Trip festival. We also saw them play Buffalo twice – both sold out, amazing shows at the Town Ballroom.

BSS is a band I don't think I could live without and this album is a perfect encapsulation of what they are musically, lyrically, and collaboratively.