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Twenty years ago George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan came together by chance, formed The Travelling Wilburys and inadvertently revitalized the careers of each member involved as, maybe in the spirit of competition, they remembered how to write great songs. Conversely, every time a member of Broken Social Scene splinters off to do another album of their own, those albums get progressively better. Not for nothing the Travelling Wilburys come to mind as Here's To Being Here rambles forth and Collett steps to the mic. With Dylan's growl and Petty's lonesome melodic sense coupled with anthemic, bring-it-on-home choruses, these dozen tracks owe a debt to the roots and folk-rock greats but, while Son Volt would cite a lot of the same influences, tracks like "Papercut Hearts," "Nothing To Lose," and "No Redemption Song" build upon that base with a set of ironically reflective, proverb-heavy lyrics that don't exactly shoot straight, but take on a universal quality in their combination of old school sentimental songwriting and a new-schooler's awareness that these themes have been done before. That awareness adds a healthy dose of artifice rather than attempting to remake the art and is the ideal solution to not retread the same ground again.

Those aspects of the singer's songwriting combined as well with the much more muscular presence of his band on Here's To Being Here makes a great case for Jason Collett's longevity after Broken Social Scene breaks up and eventually goes on to other things. With this album, he has secured a career in his own right that will endure beyond any fad; Here's To Being Here is timeless in that it could have been made any time in the last forty years and will still sound fresh in at least forty more.

Here's to Being Here will be out 2.05.08 on Arts & Crafts.  

More on Jason Collett here: www.myspace.com/jasoncollettmusic

Download “Out of Time” from Here's To Being Here – [mp3]