Apostle of Hustle "The Naked & Alone"

There’s a profound sense of disorientation on Broken Social Scene’s three records, prominent enough that I’d classify it as a characteristic element of their music. Rhythms are dense but distant, interacting with chanted, multi-layered vocals to evoke an indistinct-yet-still familiar sense of pleasure and anxiety. If anyone out there has ever had a panic attack and lost consciousness (I certainly have on more than a few occasions), BSS’s last two records enunciate more perfectly than anything I’ve heard since maybe Ege Bamyasi the overwhelming sense of fear and joy that comes with slowly regaining consciousness (the current film “The Aura” describes the sensation in its title, and in two jarring scenes). BSS member Andrew Whiteman’s wonderful new record with Apostle of Hustle National Anthem of Nowhere moves this feeling of bewilderment firmly into the realm of the social, evidenced in the promo blurb: “for everyone who feels that they have no voice or can’t be heard. They hear this title and something stirs inside them. Then they hear this song and they feel that they ‘know’ it. They meet strangers in nowhere places and will never forget those meetings.” Early album cut “The Naked and Alone” (mp3) most effectively captures this ideal, initially by hinting at the sinuous rhythm of Spoon’s wonderful “Everything Hits At Once,” itself a woozy ode to the undercurrent of impatience when emotions overwhelm. Yet “Naked”’s trippy over-abundance and busted carnival ride atmospherics make it in many ways the opposite of “Everything”’s stark desolation. Whiteman’s lyrics are only partially recognizeable—though I can’t help but associate a line like “naked is as naked does” with those ever-returning nude-in-public-and-how-did-I-get-here dreams—but they’re meant to wheeze by, maybe heard/maybe not, another swirl of color in an only slowly comprehensible situation.

Buy National Anthem of Nowhere from Arts & Crafts here. After 2/6, that is.

ONE MORE THING: I know I’m supposed to be all hot-to-trot about watching videos on my TV now, so I can get my snark on at how vanilla indie rock has become, but I must direct y’alls attentions to this YouTube clip for Of Montreal’s “Heimdelsgate Like a Promethean Curse,” the first single from an album destined to make my year-end top 20. Kevin Barnes visually translates his own unconscious battle with the panache of Baz Luhrmann directing a 4th grade pageant. Best video of the year so far (and last year).