Non-Prog Album Reviews

Album: Never Hear the End of It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjhlViRrSFU

Rating: 5/5

Band: Sloan

Year: 2006

Genre: Power-Pop

Run Time: 76:23
Personnel: Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott

Track Listing:

Flying High Again

Who Taught You to Live Like That?

I’ve Gotta Try

Everybody Wants You

Listen to the Radio

Fading Into Obscurity

I Can’t Sleep

Someone I Can be True With

Right or Wrong

There’s Something Wrong

Ana Lucia

Before the End of the Race

Blackout

I Understand

You Know What It’s About

Golden Eyes

Can’t You Figure It Out

Set In Motion

Love is All Around

Will I Belong

Ill-Placed Trust

Live the Life You’re Dreaming Of

Living with the masses

HFXNSHC

People Think they Know Me

I Know You

Last Time in Love

It’s Not The End of the World

Light Years

Another Way I Could Do It

Background:

If you've never heard of Sloan, it probably means two things. Firstly, you didn't really listen to the radio in the 90s and secondly, you probably aren't from Canada. No matter, I can fill you in with on important deets.

Sloan are a tightly tuned power-pop quartet originally from from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but since relocated to Toronto, Ontario. Ever since they formed up, Sloan have been a 4 headed monster. Each member contributes their own songs to each album making for generally very full and creative releases with no wasted space despite their chosen genre. Their live shows, often quite intimate now are equal parts welcoming and hard rocking. They’re known for switching instruments part way through each concert so that drummer Andrew Scott and take the lead on his compositions.

They first really hit the scene with the release of their critically acclaimed second album in 1994, Twice Removed. If you look into it, it is usually regarded as one of the best Canadian albums ever released. Their third album, One Chord to Another, was a watershed moment for the band.  For a while it seemed like they might really hit it big. Replete with their toe tapping hooks, their witty but often awkward lyrics and generally sunny demeanour they were the ideal band for the mid 90s. Young listeners like myself were treated to a string of hits throughout the 90s and 2000s. Wider fame ultimately proved elusive however and their fame eventually waned.

After the release of their seventh album in 2003, which featured the will received single Rest of My Life, the band sort of seemed to fade from view. 2005 saw the release of their first best of A Sides Win and it seemed like the band had be relegated to nostalgia.

The Review:

This is where I come in. I picked up A Sides Win in 2005 as I was finishing high school and along with the Steve Miller Band’s Best of 1968-1973 was one of their less conventional albums I picked up. It was probably an indication that by that time next year I would be discovering the truth about Rush and the getting my first Yes album. That next year, 2006 also happened to see the release of Sloan’s 8^th album Never Hear the End of It. I wish I could say that was a watershed moment for me, but it wasn’t. I was getting into a whole new kind of music and didn’t really have time to pay attention to a new contribution from 90s rock-radio stalwarts. It wouldn’t be long before I stopped listening to the radio all together anyway.

Fast forward a couple of years to 2008 and I’m most of the way through university and way into a diverse offering of prog bands now, but I decide to go back to one of the anomalous CDs in my collection A Sides Win. In a conversation with one of my friends, he mentions that Sloan didn’t really give in after A Sides Win and that I should check out their more recent release Never Hear the End of It. After about 25 listens in the first few months of having it, all I could say was better late than never.

As it turns out instead of retreading old ground and just trying to keep up with the times, Sloan had decided to chart their own course. Never Hear the End of It played like one suite clocking in at mammoth 76:25. The mood deliberately shifts in waves across the 30 main short semi self-enclosed pop songs which paints one of the most complex and meticulously crafted listening experiences I have yet heard. From a prog fan, I have to think that is saying something. Right from swaying organ raw rocking of Fliying High Again to the dark crunchiness of Another Way I Could Do It, I’m hooked every time.

Along the way the band makes a dizzying number of stops, but there are a few true standouts which few people outside of their most devoted fan base have really heard. The double punch of Flyin’ High Again and Who Taught You to Live Like That? which kick off the album is right away among the best of the album’s impressive content. Their combination of is the bouncing rythm and distant slightly distorted vocals set the tone and the immersion for the rest of the album. It is no surprise that Who Taught you to Live Like That is the first single from the album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avhFyFm3Nj8

The absolute best track of the album, Fading Into Obscurity hits pretty early as well at track 6. It is by any definition, a miniature progressive suite complete with timing and key changes. Not only musically intimidating, it possesses some of the most piercingly self aware lyrics I’ve ever heard. It is a triumphant personal call to arms about damning fame and doing it for the love of the music. I know every word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2U3IMk12Bo

From there the A side is packed with a number of other soulful tunes and hard rockers, probably the best of which being Right or Wrong, Something’s Wrong and Black out. The next behemoth closes out the A side at track 14, I Understand. Here Sloan again progresses into hitherto unknown territory. It is a simple, but impassioned anthem which sees loan going for an wall of sound arena ballad and pulling it of very sincerely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTlJChWXKe4

Jumping forward to track 21, through the witty and self deprecating suite beginning on Can’t You Figure It Out and ending on Will I Belong , you land on the hardest rocking track of the album, the third single Ill Placed Trust. Sharply written and even more sharply played it stays loosely on the theme of past success but does it with such brazen aplomb it’s hard not to rock out no matter what you’re doing when you hear this track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GthokC2S3aE

The last super-highlight of the album comes way at track 29, Light Years. This lighter than air bitter sweet recount of to a girl is completely unlike anything else on the gone are the pounding beats and guitar hooks. In their place are light piano and shy vocals. It sends a shiver right up my spine every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-KzqT0Xv8

Any way. After hearing Never Hear the End of It, I see them every time they come to town, I’m hooked. I’ve gotten quite deep into their anything but superficial collection of 10 albums and 2 EPs speard over 20 very fruitful years. The work Sloan went on to do after Never Hear the End of It is immaculate polished and they’ve gone on to some renewed chart success especially with 2011’s The Double Cross. The crown jewel however will always be Never Hear the End of It. There are few albums like it personal, presentable, pop and soulful. One of the easiest 5 out of 5 I’ve ever had the pleasure to give.

Prog Appeal: Medium To High, this masterpiece is pop album with prog presentation and production. You have to be a pop listener first for this one, but if you are expecting more you’ll be pleasantly surprised.