If ever a band spawned more noteworthy expats into the collective music subconscious than Toronto darlings Broken Social Scene, I’ve yet to find them. In fact, if any name pops into your head, reader, then please, don’t withhold. Share and share alike: Who would it be?

Taking the idea of a ’scene’ to the next level, BSS is responsible for no less than 20 side projects, solo efforts, and aural experiments. Of them, and most notably, Leslie Feist has arguably reached more popularity as a monosyllabically-named solo chanteuse than she garnered singing BGV’s in BSS. Nevertheless, Jason Collett, Do Make Say Think, Metric (and Emily Haines’ solo efforts), and Stars among the 20 have all released admirable work apart from the rest of the Scenesters. Last year, BSS co-founder Kevin Drew released his solo album Spirit If… as the first volume of a new kind of collective under the moniker Broken Social Scene Presents. The result was one of the best of 2007, a floundering, woozy romp through the muddy backforests of Drew’s psyche.

And now, in 2008, Broken Social Scene presents us with another of its finest: co-founder Brendan Canning’s …Something For Everyone. Canning’s influence in the formation of Broken Social Scene’s signature sound is as evident here as it was with Kevin Drew’s Spirit If…, if not more so. Dirge-like trumpets wail amidst drippy strings and a tangled mass of percussion, the noise of it all punctuated by Canning’s smooth-as-milk vocals (slightly less warbled than Drew’s, but no less engaging). And there is no shortage of guest vocalists here, as well. At times it’s easy to forget that this is Brendan Canning and not the whole gaggle of Toronto kids he’s normally surrounded by.

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