Broken Social Scene (BSS) co-chair Brendan Canning offers up the pleasantly disheveled Home Wrecking Years, his third outing as a solo artist.
Fans of 2013's breezy U Gots to Chill will find something a bit more robust here as Canning eschews bedroom coziness for more sprawling and occasionally rough-hewn Baroque pop.
Throughout his career, he's seemed to function most naturally as a collaborator, and he finds a place for BSS bandmates Sam Goldberg and Justin Peroff, Stills keyboardist Liam O'Neil, and a host of others among these ten vibrant tracks.
From the sweet, fuzzy horn-aided psych-pop of "Book It to Fresno" to the light Tropi-Canadiana of "Keystone Dealers," Canning lets his many colors show and produces a pretty solid collection in the process.
There are other fine standouts, like the dreamy "Once I Was a Runner" and the sweetly kaleidoscopic "Work Out in the Wash," each of which hides its well-orchestrated structure under a veneer of casual, worn-in guitar pop.
As a whole, Home Wrecking Years is worth a number of complete spins to let it decant and work its magic.