SOUND BITES

  When you're thirty years deep into a well established career, no one really expects anything from you anymore; in the case of Sloan, what can we honestly ask of them at this point? Over the course of their twelve albums, they helped usher in a new wave of Canadian alternative rock, reinvented themselves as nostalgic power pop specialists, conquered the radio with sharp hooks, and adapted themselves as necessary while sticking close to their core sound, earning legend status among multiple generations of fans along the way. Even more impressively, they've done it all without swapping out a single member, all four of whom worked in tandem to achieve everything they've gotten over the span of their incredible and incredibly consistent career. If we've learned anything about Sloan as fans, it's that staggering consistency that's become as much a calling card as their formidable harmonies; a couple of outliers notwithstanding, each Sloan album has arrived as a supp...

In terms of longevity and the level of quality contributions, Sloan have quietly become one of Canada's most dependable bands; with a career that has now stretched past the quarter-century mark and no true duds among their albums, the Maritime-born foursome have accumulated more than enough successes and accolades to all but ensure their place in Canadian rock all-time great discussions (aka "we all know The Hip reign at the top now and forever more, but who's second?"). With the appropriately-titled 12 , Sloan's twelfth album doesn't seek to break new ground or introduce their undeniable knack for melody and group chemistry to a young, hip audience. Rather, we simply get yet another solid record from a band that's built a career on solid records. Like the majority of their previous output, we're also reminded that all four members are accomplished songwriters, and everybody gets their fair share here. Chris Murphy's compositions are the most r...

I don't know of many bands, Canadian or otherwise, who have crafted such an unassuming yet shockingly rewarding career as Sloan. To the outsider, they've coasted along for twenty plus years on the goodwill from their early "new Nirvana" hype and the handful of radio hits of the '90s, but closer inspection yields an embarrassment of riches in terms of just how many great songs they've penned. It is, admittedly, a little easier to maintain this kind of quality when all four band members are capable of writing terrific songs, as they've been prone to remind us several times over the course of their discography. In the past, the four songwriter approach as often led to somewhat disjointed albums; one needs look no further than 2006's Never Hear The End Of It . While that album has some fantastic tracks, they're buried under an avalanche of ideas, the album's daunting 30 tracks falling over each other in an aural dogpile. They condensed the approa...

Everyone knows Sloan for their twenty-plus years of cranking out groovy, sometimes sugary doses of nostalgic pop/rock. However, they're well documented lovers of early 80's hardcore as well. Their 2006 album Never Hear The End Of It had the peppy, 72 second HFXNSHC (or, Halifax Nova Scotia Hardcore) hidden at the 24-spot of the sprawling album's 30 tracks. It sped by practically unnoticed on the album, but it now proves to be a formidable harbinger.

SLOAN I've Gotta Know From: The Double Cross Released: May 10 Given the tumultuous history of the band, it's sort of amazing to consider that Sloan has survived for twenty years with the entire original lineup intact.  Being hailed as the next big thing from the get-go, then having your record label fail to promote your second album and drop you like a bad habit only two years later is strenuous enough to push a band to call it quits, and they very nearly did.  Now we know that not only did Sloan not break up, but they founded their own record label and self-released One Chord to Another , their brilliant third album, in 1996 (I still consider that album to be their best).  After a string of three lukewarm-to-poorly received albums (from 1999's Between the Bridges to 2003's failed U.S. comeback Action Pact ), there was plenty of talk about Sloan hanging it up for good.

When a band you love starts to wear out their welcome, it's a sad thing. Take Weezer, who've released an album that's raking in more pity than positivity. As disheartening as it is, sometimes your favourite bands... well, for lack of better terms, go bad . And, it almost happened to Sloan. When A-Sides Win , their 2005 best-of was released, it couldn't have come at a better time. Sloan hadn't released a great effort in seven years, with three passable-to-mediocre albums in a row ( Between the Bridges, Pretty Together and Action Pact ) threatening to thrust them headlong into the dump bins of our hearts. Sure, those albums weren't outright bad, but they just lacked something. Soul, drive, determination. Maybe they knew it, maybe they didn't, but on record the band didn't really seem fully into it anymore. It happens to the best of us. That best-of seemed to reignite their creativity, resulting in the staggering 30-song set Never Hear the End of It...