Jason Collett is a Toronto based singer-songwriter. He has released four solo albums, and is a member of Broken Social Scene. His latest album, Rat a Tat Tat, was released in March, 2010.

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It was his work with Broken Social Scene that allowed Collett to give up woodworking and become a full-time musician. Collett became a member of Broken Social Scene, serving as one of their guitarists, after the band’s album You Forgot It In People. Collett was eventually convinced by Kevin Drew to join the band once they moved from a strictly instrumental band into one that wrote their own songs (digphilly). Though Collett took a break from touring with Broken Social Scene in the fall of 2005 to pursue his solo career and spend time with his family, Collett has made many musical connections through the band. His 2005 album, Idols of Exile, produced by Howie Beck, featured many prominent Canadian artists. Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Leslie Feist and Brendan Canning all contributed, as did members of Stars and Metric.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Collett

Have to interpret this song handicapped i.e. no access to the lyrics.

"You belong where things go  wrong?" is the poignant lyric.

According to the artist, the songs interweave the public & the private; how hard economic times can fracture personal relationships.

Of course, this implies that people should stand fast in solidarity when a period of crisis demands it.

First illusions must be lost before new categories of critical thinking can develop.

Politics as usual just aren't enough to face the challenges of the 21st century.

And the old "realities" --like Religion, Inc.--while they might take the edge off, as all opiates do, just don't make it.

I think you have to listen to your heart, be inner directed, before you come up with any answers.

Freedom of conscience is required if you're going to be &/or remain human.

 Here's Jason Collett's take on his own work:

The consistent thread throughout this record is loss. The love songs are largely emotive reflections of the ‘political’ songs. All written through the distillation of events since the economic calamity of 2008 and it’s insidiously long looming shadow. I’ve seen first hand the kind of devastation this crisis has wrecked upon much of the world I’ve toured these last few years. The shut-down-shops and foreclosed homes on the suburban fringes as I’ve made my way to and from cities I’ve played. This record is a personal reflection of the crisis we’ve all witnessed and read about every day in the paper. Calling it Reckon is an acknowledgement of loss … lost jobs, lost homes, loss of faith in our political and financial institutions and in turn, loss of illusion.

It seems politics are unavoidable if you choose to write about or engage with the world in front of you. I didn’t set out to make a record with these overtones, but neither did I try to stop it. I just did my best to avoid the shrill rhetoric that makes most political songwriting unlistenable.

There’s a poetic serendipity to the fact that I started recording this record during the same month that Occupy Wall Street began. I have felt a genuine solidarity with the passion of this movement in these precarious and volatile times.

The Reckon album/CD was released Sept. 25, 2012.

[Lyrics not yet available.]