Broken Social Scene Look Forward, Back With Tribute LP, Documentary

The profound influence of Broken Social Scene's 2003 debut album You Forgot It in People will be on display anew with...

Apr 24, 2025 - 13:42

The profound influence of Broken Social Scene’s 2003 debut album You Forgot It in People will be on display anew with the Arts & Crafts tribute album ANTHEMS, due June 6. The lead track from the song-by-song rework is Maggie Rogers and Sylvan Esso’s version of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,” which is out now.

ANTHEMS also includes contributions from Toro y Moi, Mdou Moctar (whose take on “Pacific Theme” is nearly unrecognizable from the original), serpentwithfeet, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, Hovvdy, the Weather Station and Miya Folick with Hand Habits. You Forgot It in People is recognized as one of the best indie rock records of the 2000s, with SPIN retrospectively calling it “a viscerally languid, autumnally rich, fiercely sepia dream of a record — diverse and sprawling, yet consistently breezy and pretty.”

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“‘Anthems’ is one of those songs that fundamentally changed my life,” says Rogers. “There’s something about the lyrical repetition that functions as a sort of mantra within the song and it made me understand at a very early point in my creative life that music could be a form of meditation. Broken Social Scene has long been one of my all-time favorite bands and covering it with my dear friends Nick and Amelia from Sylvan Esso was an absolute joy beam dream.”

“It was a joy to cover this beautiful song with Maggie,” Sylvan Esso added. “We all grew up loving this record to be asked to cover ’Anthems’ together was an honor and led to a truly lovely time.”

Broken Social Scene are also looking back with the documentary It’s All Gonna Break and a You Forgot It in People graphic novel, all while work continues on the Canadian collective’s first new studio album since 2017.

“Our friend Stephen Chung followed us around with a camera basically from ’98 to 2008 and he captured how we began,” group member Kevin Drew tells SPIN of the documentary, which is screening throughout the U.S. in May and June. “He attempted to make a film in 2008 and we all turned it down. All these years later, he decided, I want to finish this thing. I understood that he had something in his life that needed to have closure, so he decided to make this film from his point of view and we all got behind him. This is a film about community and friendship and shows how these people came together to create a band. It’s about friendship at a time where that word alone is suffering. I’m very proud of Stephen for sticking to his guns and making the film he wanted to make.”

As for the ANTHEMS tribute, Drew notes, “the reason Broken Social Scene got together is because of the bands that we love. So, to involve yourself with some young bands and artists that are saluting you is basically the best award you can get. I love the ones where people made the song their own. We’ve saluted a lot of bands in our time, and to have it come around and come back to us keeps the tradition going of, make honest music and you attract honest people. The goals get lost, especially in the times of now. There’s too much based around numbers and algorithm. You have to remember it’s also heartbeat. That’s the rhythm you want to follow, and we’ll get back to it once everything crumbles.”

Amid all the other projects, Broken Social Scene contribute an original score to the upcoming documentary Matter of Time, which is centered around Eddie Vedder’s 2023 Seattle benefit concerts to further research into the debilitating skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). The film premieres June 12 at the Tribeca Film Festival. Drew was brought into Matter of Time by his friend, the film director Matt Finlin, who had earlier asked him to participate in a streaming fundraiser for the cause.

“I didn’t know about EB when I was asked to do it, so, upon researching everything, I was struck by how much of a community there was around the idea that this disease can be cured,” Drew says. “When you hear that something can be cured, you obviously gravitate towards, what can I do to help that?”

Drew eventually met Vedder, who with his wife Jill co-founded EB Research Partnership in 2010, at a Nashville EB fundraiser. He recalls them hugging over the loss of Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, with whom Drew had worked on several projects. “I knew about these benefit shows that were happening in Seattle, and I knew he was making a documentary. I just sort of raised my hand and said, I know it’s a live concert, but if you need anything, we’re here for you,” Drew says. “He showed me a rough cut, and I cried. I called up the band said, we’re not going to need to do much. The people are representing the emotion, and this film is heartbreakingly hopeful. When you have something that is heartbreakingly hopeful, you have to keep the hope inside of it, so that’s what Broken Social Scene started with.”

“As you get older, you realize that the only thing that’s taking the sparkle from your eyes is pain,” he continues. “It’s not so much about careers changing or wallets exchanging. It’s more about the people in your life who are no longer around, or the people who no longer have what they thought was going to be theirs. Or, the mental state of someone as life unfolds. When you’re dealing with tales of constant suffering, it really makes you see what the truth is. I’ve worked with organizations before where people have gotten behind them just to further their careers. What I saw with EBRP was people coming together to find a cure. I saw an honesty that I want to stand next to, because I want to see that happen. I don’t know Eddie and I don’t know Jill, but I’ve watched their passion and heard them speak. Now, I’ve put music to it, and it’s the real deal.”

Here is the track list for ANTHEMS: A Celebration of Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It in People:

Capture the Flag — Ouri
KC Accidental — Hovvdy
Stars and Sons — Toro y Moi
Almost Crimes — Miya Folick & Hand Habits
Looks Just Like the Sun — The Weather Station
Pacific Theme — Mdou Moctar
Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl — Maggie Rogers & Sylvan Esso
Cause = Time — Middle Kids
Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries — Benny Sings
Shampoo Suicide — SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
Lover’s Spit — serpentwithfeet
Ainda Sou Seu Moleque — Sessa
Pitter Patter Goes My Heart — Babygirl

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.