(Arts & Crafts)

Those who have been keeping score on Toronto’s Broken Social Scene—a bolstering, mucho member collective that stands like the indie rock analog of hip-hop’s multi-headed Wu-Tang Clan—can easily bust off the names of the Sceney superstars that have fallen in among its ranks: Leslie Feist, Stars’ Amy Millan, Jason Collett Metric’s Emily Haines and Mr. Apostle of Hustle Andrew Whiteman. The keenest among the talliers will know that the men behind the screen—or perhaps just hidden among the mass of singers and guitarists on a BSS stage—are Brendan Caning and Kevin Drew. In what is a lot more than a stopgap between the band’s last record and the next, Drew is taking the spotlight with collection of songs about love, hate, lust and transcendence…though not exactly in that order. With the regular shift of his low, pining mumble to a rangey falsetto, Drew pulls Spirit If… together like a sprawling decathalon of skewered, fractured, fucked-up pop that sounds like a perfectly pieced collage.

What’s the big picture here? Is it a solo record? Is it a Broken Social Scene album proper? I’m not sure, but it’s a hell of a record. “Tbtf” is a kind of everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach that ends up a mildly baroque masterstroke in the sort of easy rock that BSS has made their trade. “Lucky Ones” is an amiable ramble of sunny pop, while the grinding beat and choir-ish chorus makes for a slice of sublime experimentation on “Big Love.” Then there’s no-bones-about-it rock and roll with “Back Out on the…,” which features the guitar heroics of Dinosaur Jr’s frontman J. Mascis unmistakably ripping away riff after riff. It is an unerring blast of joyous, fuzzy abandon. Drew and company have a detailed and beautiful record with Spirit If…, a song cycle rich, textured and thoroughly engaging at each turn.

Broken Social Scene and Kevin Drew play songs from Spirit If… (and most likely favorites from the band’s other albums) tonight at 7pm at Town Ballroom with special guests Arthur and Yu.