Hug Of Thunder marks the fifth studio album from Canadian alt-rock supergroup Broken Social Scene, their first in seven years. Hug Of Thunder was produced by Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, Spoon, The Strokes) with Nyles Spencer, and mixed by Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer). Founded in '99 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, the album features 17 players and 15 original members including Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric, Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars, Charles Spearin and Ohad Benchetrit of Do Make Say Think, and Grammy-nominated Leslie Feist. 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 and then some. 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.