Broken Social Scene Announce New Album “Hug of Thunder”

By: Staff –

Broken Social Scene. (Photo: Norman Wong)

Toronto-based indie rock band Broken Social Scene have recently detailed their first album in seven years, Hug Of Thunder, out July 7 on their label Arts & Crafts. Produced by Joe Chiccarelli and mixed by Shawn Everett, Hug Of Thunder includes contributions from all fifteen original members of Broken Social Scene, as well as new guest vocalist Ariel Engle.

Today, you can stream the title track of the album HERE.

Broken Social Scene also announced their first full U.S. tour since 2011. Frightened Rabbit will support on select dates, as well The Belle Game; tour dates are listed below. For these dates, Broken Social Scene are partnering with Plus 1 so that $1 from every ticket goes towards providing access to arts education for young people in disadvantaged communities. Tickets for all the band’s headlining shows will go on sale Wednesday, May 17th, via the Broken Social Scene website. Additional dates will be announced soon.

Hug Of Thunder is everything BSS fans love from the Canadian collective and then some, an album overflowing with glorious open chords, multi-voice harmonies, spacious psychedelia-tinted breakdowns, and more. It is a panoramic, expansive album that manages to be both epic and intimate; and like all things BSS, in troubled times, it offers a serotonin rush of positivity. Since their inception in the early Aughts, BSS have always pushed sonic boundaries while remaining reverent of a perfect chorus; almost twenty years down the line, Hug Of Thunder sharpens that balance. The record’s twelve songs refract the band’s varying emotions, methods, and techniques in ways that not only reference their other albums, but surpass them.  Hug Of Thunder is righteous but warm, angry but loving, melodic but uncompromising. And if you’ve ever fallen in love with Broken Social Scene – as many of us have – it is a perfect return that was truly worth the wait.

A limited edition vinyl version of the record is also available for pre-order. It’s available in Coke bottle clear vinyl (Limited to 500, exclusive to pre-order purchases), 140g double-LP, gatefold jacket (matte UV), printed vinyl sleeves (matte UV), and a 28 page booklet with stitched spine affixed to jacket. Artwork layout and design for the vinyl were done by two-time JUNO Award-winner (and Broken Social Scene’s drummer) Justin Peroff and kimikimo. LP includes the vinyl-only bonus track “Old Dead Young.”

PRE-ORDER PHYSICAL ALBUM // PRE-ORDER DIGITAL ALBUM

Hug of Thunder Tracklist
1. Sol Luna
2. Halfway Home
3. Protest Song
4. Skyline
5. Stay Happy
6. Vanity Pail Kids
7. Hug Of Thunder
8. Towers and Masons
9. Victim Lover
10. Please Take Me With You
11. Gonna Get Better
12. Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse

Broken Social Scene 2017 Tour Dates
05/23/17 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Albert Hall
05/24/17 – London, United Kingdom @ Brixton Academy
05/26/17 – Neustrelitz, Germany @ Immergut Festival
05/28/17 – Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Club
05/29/17 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
05/30/17 – Paris, France @ Alhambra
06/01/17 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
06/03/17 – Toronto, Ontario @ Field Trip
06/24/17 – Pasadena, CA @ Arroyo Seco Weekend
07/21-23/17 – Edmonton, AB @ Interstellar Rodeo
08/05/17 – Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga
08/18-20/17 – Winnipeg, MB @ Interstellar Rodeo
9/16/17 – Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre ~
9/17/17 – New York, NY @ Meadows Music & Art festival
9/19/17 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ~
9/21/17- Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel ~
9/22/17 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle *
9/24/17 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant *
9/26/17 – Des Moines, IA @ Hoyt Sherman *
9/27/17 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater *
9/28/17 – St. Paul, MN @ The Palace *
9/29/17 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom *
9/30/17 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore *
10/1/17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Byham Theater *
10/3/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
10/5/17 – Portland, ME @ State Theater *
10/6/17 – New Haven, CT @ College Street *
10/7/17 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues

~ – with The Belle Game
* – with Frightened Rabbit