Broken Social Scene (
BSS) co-chair
Brendan Canning offers up the pleasantly disheveled
Home Wrecking Years, his third outing as a solo artist. Fans of 2013's breezy U Gots to Chill will find something a bit more robust here as
Canning eschews bedroom coziness for more sprawling and occasionally rough-hewn Baroque pop. Throughout his career, he's seemed to function most naturally as a collaborator, and he finds a place for
BSS bandmates
Sam Goldberg and
Justin Peroff,
Stills keyboardist
Liam O'Neil, and a host of others among these ten vibrant tracks. From the sweet, fuzzy horn-aided psych-pop of "Book It to Fresno" to the light Tropi-Canadiana of "Keystone Dealers,"
Canning lets his many colors show and produces a pretty solid collection in the process. There are other fine standouts, like the dreamy "Once I Was a Runner" and the sweetly kaleidoscopic "Work Out in the Wash," each of which hides its well-orchestrated structure under a veneer of casual, worn-in guitar pop. As a whole,
Home Wrecking Years is worth a number of complete spins to let it decant and work its magic. [
Home Wrecking Years was also released on LP.] ~ Timothy Monger