Broken Social Scene, Feel Good Lost (2001)

Where bought? Feels like Piccadilly Records in Manchester or Action Records in Preston. More likely the former, I'd say.

You may not like the Toronto-based turn of the century indie-rockers Broken Social Scene and that is fine - I saw them in December 2004 in Berlin and they were pretty brilliant, actually, with such an incredible live sound for a band with FIVE guitarists - but unless you're also familiar with this album too, please throw all of your conceptions of the band out of the window before approaching this record.

As it goes I thought and still think that You Forgot it in People is a very good indie rock record and they've had diminishing returns ever since. After I thought that I liked the slightly overblown follow-up Broken Social Scene, I worked backward and picked this up for not very much considering it was i. new and ii. a double record. The record shop I got it from tended to do this quickly with unloved stock, so I girded myself for something rancid and nascent.

What Feel Good Lost is is completely different to the band they would become. Different to the point where I am wildly surprised that they kept the same name. Different to the point where I have played this to people who like the poppy indie-rock songs of their well-known records who cannot guess within 20 guesses that this is the same band at all.

Starting as a duo (though many who would become part of the wider ensemble make appearances here and there) Feel Good Lost presents arguably one of the more interesting ambient-experimental records of the early 20th century. Unashamedly bedroom lo-fi, the album recalls Tortoise and Aix em Klemm and more obscure post-rock acts of the 1990s. Several tracks just locate a mood and stay there for a bit - but in a good way.

The final track - 'Cranley's Gonna Make It' - gives a glimpse into the band that lies a couple of years down the road. And while the record is fairly front-loaded (the best tracks are the first four) it strikes me as a genuine curio in the slightly more stage-managed and unweird world of 21st century indie rock.

I used throw Side A on when I would come in drunk and enjoy the mood as it unfolded and I'll probably do that for several more years to come.