Some Words

Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl makes an excellent wink and nod appearance near the end of Scott Pilgrim. They use the original album version, which is sung, if I recall correctly, by Emily Haines, also of Metric. Now, barring some special appearances, she hasn’t toured with BSS since 2002. A rotating cast of women have taken up the song. If you see it in concert who is best? Well, it turns out that’s an interesting question.

Broken Social Scene has had numerous touring lineups. I’ve found four versions. If Feist has done this song live, I didn’t find it on youtube. [oops, I was wrong, but she isn't the sole vocalist in that performance]

The current female lead vocalist: Lisa Lobsinger

The long time lead: Amy Millan

The irregular fill in: Elizabeth Powell (regularly in the touring lineup, but I don’t know that she does this song often)

Best I could find on that, lots of semi-hilarious crowd “banter.”

The originator: Emily Haines

Impressive if only for the ear splitting screams from just inches from the camera. Also, I could do without the girl sort of sing chanting from the audience, but them’s the breaks on youtube.

And because I was wrong: Amy Millan, Leslie Feist, and Emily Haines all in one performance. (with bonus air guitar from Feist)

It seems that Amy Millan (who did not record the original) manages to get closest to the album version’s distortion of Haines’ vocals. Haines, understandably does an amazing version of it herself. I think hers edges out the others, just barely, for its strong clear vocals on what can otherwise be a mumbly song. Elizabeth Powell gets a couple of the lyrics wrong, but really seems to get the daydreaming nature of the song. Plus it’s fun to watch her get more confident and have more fun with the song as it goes on. Lisa Lobsinger’s version of the song is interestingly vulnerable at times, but I’m not a fan of the almost clipped crisp enunciation she uses for the “park that car” chant at the end. The song loses some of its dreamlike quality as a result. It may be better singing from a technical standpoint, but it doesn’t suit the song as well. She gets my sympathy though, as some of the commenters on for the clip complain that she isn’t as pretty or as good a singer as Emily Haines. Commenters, come on, the real answer is that all five of these women kick ass.