You Gots 2 Chill

Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning has kept himself busy since his flagship band announced that they would be embarking on an "indefinite hiatus" in 2011. After testing the solo waters in 2008 with the likeable, meandering, bedroom parlor-pop outing Something for All of Us..., the shape-shifting multi-instrumentalist joined his BSS teammates for 2010's (possible swan song) Forgiveness Rock Record, revived his pre-BSS outfit Cookie Duster for a new album (When Flying Was Easy), provided the score for director Paul Schrader's Lindsay Lohan debacle The Canyons, and put out his second solo long-player, 2013's likeable, meandering, bedroom parlor-pop outing You Gots 2 Chill. Less fussy and decidedly more "chill" than his last effort, Canning has crafted a languid, likeable, and decidedly unassuming collection of psych-tinged, indie/electro-soft rock daydreams that are tailor-made for snowy, hungover, late-January afternoons, with highlights arriving via the breezy and glitchy Father John Misty-meets Love and Rockets-inspired "However Long," the evocative, overcast chamber folk of "Plugged In," and the dreamy Daniela Gesundheit from Snowblink-led "Bullied Days," the latter of which follows "Long Live Land Lines," one of two (brief) finger-picked tracks, along with "Once a Lighthouse," that were recorded through his voicemail that, like the instrumental album-opener "Post Fahey," pay homage the legendary guitarist/composer John Fahey. The album title alone provides more than ample evidence that Canning knows all too well that all pop music is ephemeral, but he also knows how to build a world worth visiting, even if it's only for a short time.