Sloan is one of those bands who has slipped in and out of my field of vision for a long time. I went through a phase after Action Pact dropped back in 2003 and their song "The Rest of My Life" was getting a lot of play up here in the Great White North that I decided it was time to make up for lost time and pick up their albums ... all of them. Now, not everything resonated with me, but there always seemed to be a standout or a spark that was enough to fan the fire and keep me engaged.
When thinking about the great Canadian bands who never really got a shot outside of the country, most people will usually proclaim The Tragically Hip as Canada's best kept secret. That's one answer, but there are other responses that are equally valid. To me, Sloan was the band who had the goods, and their retro feel and quirky image should have been enough. They've not so quietly crafted one power pop album after another, delivering the goods. Woulda, shoulda, coulda - the classic Canadian conundrum.
This was a band with four singers and four songwriters, and while there was a cohesiveness, the band's identity was often defined by whoever was singing. The hits tended to come from Chris Murphy, who looked like a dishevelled kid from the '70s complete with the large wire-rimmed glasses, and then there was guitarist Patrick Pentland, who was a straight ahead rock and roller. Jay, the other guitar player, had a thin sweet voice whose songs were hit and miss for me ... when they hit, though, they hit hard. Andrew was the drummer, who in a live setting switched to guitar to sing his songs. I'll also admit there are times I have a difficult time telling Chris, Patrick and Andrew apart. Oh, they have their own idiosyncracies, but they're all in the same wheelhouse. I suspect if I was to ever meet the guys, they'd call me an idiot for not being able to tell them apart.
Action Pact, the album I first bought after hearing the band's singles for many years, was a deliberate attempt by producer Tom Rothrock to focus the band on the two personalities who wrote the hits. Although Jay had a couple of songs on the album, Andrew was shut out. The album did okay in Canada, didn't break in the US, and the band would take a couple of years before returning with the ambitious Never Hear the End of It, which saw the band returning to the four singers, four writers iteration, and there were a couple of great songs, but more isn't always better.
I would get their albums as they came out, but I was finding that I was picking them up because I was a completist, or a sucker for punishment. It wasn't really the fan in me who was buying stuff, it was the borderline obsessive who wanted to keep up with the collection.
This is also the reason I picked up 12, on vinyl no less. I was surprised this came out in 2018, as it seemed to come and go without really making a splash. I know that's the objective if you're a competitive diver, but if you're releasing an album it should be like a belly flop cannon ball combo. You want people to notice, and get them wet. There was a little voice that said, "Stream it first ... don't spend money ... don't do it."
I spent the money. Now, in fairness to my wallet, the album was on sale and was more aligned to what I was paying for records when I used to buy records. Besides, I was to discover it was a pretty record, a nice translucent orange.
The best and worst thing I can say about this after my first cursory listen is that this is a Sloan album. The songs have a journeyman efficiency to them, and they don't sound tired or like they're being cranked out like sausages. You'd think that after over three decades the band would have run out of ideas and chord progressions and that things would just get stale and boring. Oddly, the band has matured but maintained their youthful exuberance - and that just plain seems impossible to maintain, but they do and with abandon.
They keep trying to grasp the brass ring, and I suspect the band collectively must feel at times that the record buying public is playing the role of Lucy holding a football and enticing the band to try again. So with 12, the band, truly a band, were back with their twelfth album with twelve songs and they gave it a good go, only to have the ball snatched away at the last moment.
It doesn't stop them from trying, and you can tell there must be a degree of frustration in not catching their big break, but the guys aren't crying in their cups. They just keep on keeping on and are pretty self aware about their lot, which I find completely endearing and very Canadian. It's also why I kept buying their records. The downside for me when I moved to iTunes was the loss of physical media, and by gum I am a tactile listener. Having the album in my library was one thing, actually spending time really listening was another. Oh, and no, at the time of writing this I have not streamed (yes, that's something I do now) Steady (the band's 2022 release) but I will.
So while I had 12 in my library, I couldn't remember actually buying it ... sad, I know. Finding the album was literally like getting it new. Being able to hold the lyrics while listening was what I needed to connect my eyes to my ears. More often than not, Sloan will lead off with a killer track, and the album's opener "Spin My Wheels" is sonic ear candy. The band now simply attributes the songs to Sloan, which I find cool. There are some really good songs here, and even Jay's songs, which often don't resonate with me, are really good here. The only song that caught me off guard (not in a good way) was "Have Faith," and that's mainly because the main chord progression sounded so much like "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, I found it distracting. This is probably the only time I've heard a Sloan song that didn't sound like a Sloan song.
However, the band really delivered, and I found myself listening to this constantly for a couple of days. Heck, the first four tracks were like calling cards, with each member stepping up and introducing themselves, and the songs were fantastic. I have to say I loved the bookends, "Spin My Wheels" and the closing track "44 Teenagers," and even "Have Faith" fitted in nicely once I got past the derivative nature of the song.
For me this was a return of sorts. Sloan was on my radar, although I suspect they never went away. When I first said, "The best and worst thing I can say about this is that this is a Sloan album," it was a backhanded compliment, but the reality is this is really the best thing about Sloan. They are Sloan. For Canadian rock fans, one could say their dependable output is an essential service.
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