It's a shame that this offering fails to display the kind of passion and intensity Broken Social Scene have displayed in the recent material they've played in concert, but then, most of these tracks are culled from a time before the band hit their stride. Sadly, with this one exception, Beehives remains pretty but formless, and its status as an outtakes and rarities collection confirms that the band, to whatever extent, agrees in this regard. Here, Emily Haines' vocals are mixed democratically with the other instruments, and her matte delivery adds further texture to the exceptionally lush accompaniment. Beehives' only real standout, then, comes with "Backyards". Leslie Feist's vocal/piano reworking of "Lover's Spit" is temporarily intriguing, but fails to differentiate much from the original LP version. "Market Fresh", meanwhile, is as close to a B-side as we might expect from You Forgot It in People- its midtempo groove situates itself squarely between their two full-lengths in terms of haziness and propensity. The most successful of the instrumentals here, "Hallmark", succeeds precisely because, as an upbeat, drum-machine driven number, it refuses to stick with one pattern for too long, as its guitar lines and harmonica hums anxiously crisscross one another and grow in complexity. Ambient music does not mean stagnant music- in fact, the word itself is derived from a compound of the Latin verb "to go"- but all too often on Beehives, this distinction seems to collapse. "Da Da Dada", to its own credit, manages to spark some interest at the compilation's midpoint by launching into a brief, hazed reprise of You Forgot It in People's "Cause = Time", but before you know it, the song has settled back into the tepid fog of held belltones and noise which it opened with. It doesn't help that these meanderings all share the same mid-tempo lilt: When taken in its entirety, this continual sameness gives the album an unbearably flat feel. Tracks like the guitar-sliding shuffle "Weddings", "Ambulance for the Ambience" with all its blips, bells, and solo synth whistles, and the horny, throaty scream-lullaby "Time = Cause" are cavernous and wholly pretty, but stagnate almost instantly. Most of these songs could stand to be about a third their length. This is not the Broken Social Scene of You Forgot It In People, and indeed, it was clearly not intended to be, as the collection describes itself as "songs for the come down." But perhaps Beehives comes down a little too much, almost consciously avoiding the band's proven strengths: energy and enthusiasm.
Generally, the tracks here are pleasant and well-produced, but are rarely engaging enough to justify their runtimes. Beehives finds the band indulging in the post-rock noodling of 2001's stuporific Feel Good Lost.
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