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Here's To Being Here

by

Jason Collett

 
Here's To Being Here
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Avg: 3.5 (128 ratings)

Broken Social Scener channels Bob…and Jakob on this breezy solo outing.

  • We Say...

    Broken Social Scene guitarist Jason Collett seems to be the rare Dylanophile who loves the man's music as much as his lyrics — maybe even more so. Alt-country isn't the sort of tag you can toss around without someone getting hurt and here, for all Collett's rootsy flourishes, it's particularly inappropriate. Nor, despite sounds pilfered from sources such as John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and the falsetto-and-disco of the Stones' "Emotional Rescue" (not to mention what could be a Linda McCartney keyboard solo), is this mere pastiche. Collett just loves traditional rock music as a language that's far from exhausted, which is why it's the small touches, like the playful guitar hook on "Sorry Lori," that you take away.

    Maybe he could study Dylan's lyrics a tad more — Collett's heartland is strewn with secondhand madonnas and whores, recollections of "stayin' stoned on Highway 401," and other detritus mistook for mythos. But when he wants to he can cut to the point with an enthusiastic burst like "Just say yes, just say yes, just say yes." And anyway, the comparisons to Bob are overplayed anyway. Vocally, he sounds more like a Dylan named Jakob. Maybe even more like a Dylan named "Tom Petty."

  • They Say...

    Jason Collett took a break from Broken Social Scene in 2005, choosing instead to focus on the promotion of Idols of Exile alongside his backing band, Paso Mino. Here's to Being Here arrives three years later, featuring a slimmed-down lineup (only Paso Mino and a small handful of guests lend their help) and an emphasis on dusty, '70s AM radio songcraft. Bob Dylan's raspy vocals and slow annunciations are an obvious influence here, but Collett's willingness to mix straightforward Americana with genre-bending experiments is more akin to a pre-Subtitulo Josh Rouse. These 12 songs are lightly embellished with pianos, handheld percussion, harmonicas, and multiple guitars, resulting in an organic mix that sounds worlds apart from the bombastic racket of Broken Social Scene. If that band's ethereal noise seeks to elevate the audience, then Here's to Being Here works at keeping the listener grounded in the highways, farms, and fields of Collett's image-heavy lyrics. He paints pictures like a storyteller, mapping out his songs with the names of roads and characters. And when Collett decides to truly relax, as he does on the mischievous "Out of Time," the results make for some of the disc's best moments. High-pitched coos gatecrash the song's chorus like they've just been kicked out of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," and a harmonized keyboard solo injects a bit of the Steve Miller Band into an otherwise minimalist, Southern-styled slow jam. Such unexpected moves seem to be a new thing for Collett, and they combine to make this his strongest solo effort yet.

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