Broken Social Scene: Remember The Humans

Broken Social Scene: Remember The Humans Album Cover

Daniel Corretjer Rios

Writer

May 15, 2026

Broken Social Scene have always been a very dynamic band, as they reinvent their sound with every project they release. On Remember The People, the jazzy style they chose to implement into their music was on full display with woodwinds, brass, harp, strings and an ensemble of voices which all weave together sensationally. All of these elements give the effect of this album feeling less like a rock record, and more like a living and breathing orchestral event. 

The opener, “Not Around Anymore,” is an immediate declaration of the direction the record is headed in. It begins with this warm, graceful, and layered woodwind arrangement, which establishes a world the listener wants to stay inside. It starts the project fantastically, as it throws an attractive invite to the listener, without revealing everything the album has to offer.

“Only The Good I Keep” further accelerates this album's momentum by delivering one of the album’s strongest moments. This track has folk written all over it, with strong strums of an acoustic guitar guiding the pace of the song, and a soulful, live French horn playing ad-libs after each chorus line. The sleek falsetto in the chorus only adds to the playful nature of this song.

“Mission Accomplished (Kingfisher)” follows in a very similar spirit, but not instantly. It starts off simple, and slowly but surely the textures start tacking on, with what sounds to be an unhinged theremin and some unexpected and meticulously placed ukulele runs.

“The Call” and “Relief” are the clear peaks of this album. The former takes you deeper into this world of live instrumentation and stunning vocal harmonies. The way they seamlessly incorporate jazz into a track with such hard-hitting, rocky drums is impressive to say the least. The latter, “Relief,” is arguably the most fully realized track on the album. The track includes but is not limited to, harps, soft vocals, crashing drums, and production so layered that it’s difficult to identify something the band was missing. The soft vocals and punchy drums offer a unique dynamic, as they contrast greatly but work so well together.

The 5^th track, “And I Think Of You,” slows the pace of the record down as it starts in an intentionally unsettling and unorganized state before converging into such a peaceful and uplifting track. Even though this song does in fact bring itself back together, it did have the effect of losing some of the momentum the first four songs had put into motion. 

Sadly, this loss of momentum continues into the next track, “The Briefest Kiss,” greatly due to the intro dragging out far too long. The track does recover through strong vocals and texturing, but the drawn-out intro is hard to ignore. “Life Within The Ground” struggles in a similar way. Having thinner instrumentation isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when accompanied by a lazy vocal performance and subpar lyricism, it becomes clear that this track doesn’t compare to the others.

“Paying For Your Love” is the album’s most complicated track. The woodwinds and strings come in beautifully. Then come in the drums and the vocals, where the track begins to feel flat and awkward, largely due to the vocals sounding stiff. However, then everything intensifies in the chorus, and it lands marvelously, including the vocal performance. But when the instrumentation pulls back again for another verse, the vocals feel as if they’re unable to hold the space on their own.

Nonetheless, this awkwardness could just be following the themes the lyrics are portraying, the awkwardness of longing for someone who never quite loved you back. The stiff, restrained vocal delivery mirrors the emotional paralysis the writer felt trapped in, while the explosive chorus reflects those moments of freedom, where those feelings of longing are finally gone for a second. Whether these stylistic choices sound great or not, the form of the song follows the themes of the message the band was trying to get across.

 “What Happens Now” is where the record begins to wind down, shifting into something quieter and more sentimental. The graceful strings and the jazzy brass instruments accompany the gentle vocal performance in a beautiful, immersive descent. The band is slowly easing you back into the real world after everything they’ve put you through. The actual closer, “Parking Lot Dreams,” attempts to do the same, but without the textures that made the former so special. The track is still decent, but it is an underwhelming way to close out such an ambitious album.

Despite having a rather disappointing finish, Remember The People is still a remarkable showcase of what Broken Social Scene does best. It has some of the band’s most sonically assertive sounds to date, as all of the layers, textures, and voices contribute to the music feeling alive, as if it was breathing directly into the listener’s ear. Its stumbles are definitely real, but they do not undo what the peaks of the record accomplish, and those moments are unforgettable.