Sometimes one song can tell you everything you need to know about an album. Spirit if ..., the new disc from Broken Social Scene's founder Kevin Drew, has one of these songs. Eleven tracks in, "Back Out on the..." opens with fuzzed-out guitars that at first recall some of BSS's biggest hits, among them "Almost Crimes" and "7/4 (Shoreline)." Despite the inspired guest-spot from Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis, who provides the aforementioned guitar fuzz, the track lacks the propulsive beat and driving energy that has made Broken Social Scene's best work so celebratory and anthemic. The song falls so flat that J. Mascis's presence ends up feeling like the modern rock version of stunt-casting.
While "Back Out on the..." has enough of the BSS qualities their ever-expanding fan-base has come to love, its failure to deliver will leave any listener ultimately disappointed. Such is the case of Spirit if..., a collection including a handful almost-excellent pop songs bogged down by too much noodly white-noise filler and nondescript indie-rock crooning.
For better or worse, the last few years have seen some of Drew's Broken Social sidekicks far eclipsing his fame and that of the Canadian collective they all owe allegiance to. Leslie Feist, whose solo career should be well-known to VH1 watchers, and Emily Haines, who leads the band Metric, lend background vocals to many tracks on Spirit If.... Their voices, however, only enter the foreground on "Aging Faces/Losing Places." Their vocal stylings are usually so distinctive and compelling that the whispery, sing-song timbres of the track feel like a massive waste of talent. Sure, it may be too much to ask for another "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl"
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