If 2017 is a sort of class reunion for 2000s indie rock—with new albums from Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, Phoenix, Fleet Foxes, The National, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors all appearing in the same calendar year—then the members of Broken Social Scene are the clique that breaks off from the main festivities. “I don’t want to sound too Norman Rockwell about it, but reuniting with those guys is precious to me,” Leslie Feist recently told Stereogum, ahead of her own long-awaited Pleasure. “The fact that we have that place to come together and have a parallel focus? We all have something to contribute to together? It’s great.” That mutual love—the sound of this roving gaggle of Canadian musicians finding their way back to each other, and just getting high off being in each other’s presence again—colors Hug Of Thunder, Broken Social Scene’s first album in seven years. It makes you grateful they were invited to the party.
At its peak, Broken Social Scene was both one of the biggest things in indie rock and a group containing what were soon to be some of the genre’s biggest names. Hug Of Thunder most recaptures the communal triumph of 2002 breakthrough You Forgot It In People, which synthesized those many talented voices into a joyful, eclectic whole, before they began stealing bits of the spotlight for themselves. The collective enthusiasm throbs from within “Halfway Home,” which opens Hug Of Thunder’s 12 tracks with a string-scraping, drum-rolling fanfare and proves a recent Father John Misty pronouncement—“a lot of indie rock skews closely to worship music”—in the best way possible. It’s a praise chorus, recapturing the potent mix of ecstasy and anxiety that’s long been Broken Social Scene’s stock in trade. “’Cause if you never run, never run / How they gonna catch you alive,” ringleader Kevin Drew murmurs between acoustic picking and morse-code snares.
Hug is also a welcome retreat to those earlier records in terms of production, forsaking the leaner sound of 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record for the shaggy excesses of both You Forgot It and Broken Social Scene. The dreamier texture of those early records is restored on tracks like “Please Take Me With You” and “Skyline,” the latter of which plays like a shoegaze reimagining of Feist strummer “Feel It All.” It’s telling how easily “Halfway Home” and “Protest Song” slot into the band’s current live sets, whether played back-to-back (as they are on record) or placed next to similarly propulsive favorites like “7/4 (Shoreline)” and “Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (A Better Day).” If there are surprises to be found, it’s in the occasional ’80s pop influences—the spiky Howard Jones horns on “Vanity Pail Kids,” or the gated drums on “Hug Of Thunder” that beg to be slotted on a “Summer 2017” playlist next to Haim’s “Want You Back.”