Jason Collett
Idols of Exile (Arts & Crafts)
A guess culled from Jason Collett’s second solo LP: In the realm of Broken Social Scene, Collett takes care of the booze while BSS head Kevin Drew provides the stony glory. Not that all music is a sum of vice and influence, but Collett’s Idols of Exile is a drunken stroll down beaches and alleyways, sometimes gliding along and happily humming, other times tripping over that embarrassing invisible step. Opening with the short and sweet BSS-core “Fire,” Idols hits its high note early, as is often the case in those debaucherous evenings, with rum-soaked Caribbean sway “Hangover Days,” mixing Metric’s Emily Haines with Collett’s hopefulness to an effect that would make Jimmy Buffett smile. The blubbering begins with alt.country-tinged “We All Lose One Another,” Wilco rip “Almost Summer” (Teeth), and the mopey “Pink Night”: “I love it when my girlfriend calls me a cock-sucking faggot.” Redeemed somewhat by the soft and reflective “Parry Sound” and haunting “Tinsel and Sawdust,” Idols becomes a snapshot of Collett’s years of heavy lifting. Bringing his friends along for the revelry (Haines, Drew, Stars’ Amy Millan, Feist, etc.), the Toronto songwriter proves that the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts. (Saturday, March 18, 10pm @ Momos)
This article appears in March 17 • 2006.