''Hug of Thunder'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

musical collective Musical collective is a phrase used to describe a group of musicians in which membership is flexible and creative control is shared.Liisa Ladouceur"Collegjthk ctive Souls" ''This Magazine'', November/December 2004. The concept is distinct from th ...

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Canning, the oth ...

. It was released by the Arts & Crafts record label on July 7, 2017.

Background

After declaring a hiatus in September 2011, Broken Social Scene performed at the Field Trip Arts & Crafts Music Festival in 2013 and played a few other festivals in 2015, which prompted band members

Kevin Drew Kevin Drew (born September 9, 1976) is a Canadian musician and songwriter who, together with Brendan Canning, founded the expansive Toronto baroque-pop collective Broken Social Scene. He was also part of the lesser-known KC Accidental, which con ...

, Brendan Canning,

Charles Spearin Charles Spearin is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist from Toronto, Ontario. He is primarily known as a founding member of indie rock bands Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene. Career As a teen, Spearin studied at Etobicoke School of the A ...

, Justin Peroff, and

Andrew Whiteman David Andrew Patrick Whiteman is a Canadian musician and songwriter. Forming the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir in Toronto out of high school, he eventually left the band in 1993 after eight years. Whiteman went on to record ''Fear of Zen'' in 1995 w ...

to discuss recording new material. "When we're working, we understand that there will be a lot more input, so we leave space in the music as we're writing it," Spearin said. "We would send out invitations for all the usual crew, and say, 'Hey, we're doing this again. Would you be interested in being part of this?'" In the end, eighteen musicians were credited on ''Hug of Thunder''. During sessions for the album, Feist conceived the idea for the title track, her first lead vocal on a Broken Social Scene song since 2006. Drew explained that the title represents "exactly who we are. That is our show. We're trying to create that hug of thunder. That sound. That embrace amongst the chaos."

Reception

''Hug of Thunder'' received positive reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mu ...

s. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 76, based on 30 reviews.

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians * Ohad Benchetrit –

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos t ...

, electric guitar * Brendan Canning – bass guitar , background vocals , synth , electric guitar , bass synth , piano , acoustic guitar , guitar loops , lead vocals , vocals * Joe Chiccarelli –

drum programming Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These ...

* Evan Cranley – trombone , electric guitar *

– background vocals , lead vocals , vocals , acoustic guitar , electric guitar , piano , drums , percussion , bass synth , electronic drums , beat box , sound effects , synth ,

B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, bass guitar , Nord strings ,

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

, keyboard *

Ariel Engle Ariel Engle is a Canadian indie pop singer and songwriter who records and performs as a solo artist and with Broken Social Scene.Ben Rayner, "Broken Social Scene put it back together for Hug of Thunder". ''Toronto Star'', July 5, 2017. Engle firs ...

– background vocals , lead vocals , vocals * Shawn Everett – background vocals, synth * Feist - background vocals , vocals , lead vocals , Baldwin keys , organ * David French – saxophone , flute * Sam Goldberg –

keytar The keytar is a lightweight synthesizer that is supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, similar to the way a guitar is supported by a strap. Keytars allow players a greater range of movement onstage, compared to conventional keyboards ...

, electric guitar * Emily Haines – background vocals , lead vocals , vocals * Julia Hambleton – clarinet * Lisa Lobsinger – vocals * Dave Manelin – vocals * Roger Manning –

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder ...

Amy Millan Amy Millan (born December 3, 1973) is a Canadian indie rock singer and guitarist. She records and performs with the bands Stars and Broken Social Scene as well as having a successful solo career. Her second solo album, '' Masters of the Burial'' ...

– background vocals , vocals *

Julie Penner Julie Penner (born 1976) is a Canadian violinist who has played with The FemBots, Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think, Hylozoists, The Lowest of the Low and The Weakerthans. She also worked as the music producer for Stuart McLean's ''The Vi ...

– violin * Justin Peroff – drums , percussion * Jimmy Shaw – trumpet *

- electric guitar , nyckelharpa , Hammertone guitar , synth , bass synth , background vocals , air spray percussion , Melotron guitar , drum machine , Farfisa organ ,

, B3 organ , trumpet * Nyles Spencer – sampler , bass synth *

– electric guitar , synth , vocals , drum machine , acoustic guitar , fuzz bass , background vocals , tres guitar , bass synth Technical * Joe Chiccarelli – production * Nyles Spencer – production * Shawn Everett – mixing * Emily Lazar – mastering * Chris Allgood – mastering assistance

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Arts & Crafts Productions albums Broken Social Scene albums