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Our love for Sloan is woefully under-represented here at copacetic zine (I mean, no Sloan reviews since 2002?! What's up with THAT?!). However, there is a new CD out that you must all go out and buy. Really, it's the perfect introduction to this Canadian quartet: a 16-song compilation CD featuring a smattering of their hit singles spanning from 1992 to 2005. You get their early "alternative" hit "Underwhelmed" (the song that you'll listen to and go, "Ohhhh, yeah, I remember these guys...") and there's even two new songs for all us Sloan-obsessives who have everything already.
HOWEVER! If you are a Sloan-obsessive, listen up: you're gonna want to make sure to purchase the IMPORT version of this CD, the one that comes with the DVD. Yes, there is a US release that comes with a DVD, but apparently there were some "international" licensing issues, so the Canadian-version has way more stuff on it. Go get it, and get everything else this band has put out, too! (janice.07.05)
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Apologies if you were expecting a review of Sloan's new (2002) album "Pretty Together" (which our friend Chris, who's a huge Sloan fan, describes as "crap", so there's a review for ya). But this one's new to me, so here we go.
Anyway, watch out, because I'm going to compare this Sloan album to Helmet. Yeah, yeah, I know, but hear me out. See, when Helmet came out with "Meantime", I was like, hey, here's a band which takes heavy metal and strips it of the embarrassing fashions and lyrics, leaving behind the aggressive sonic qualities (which appealed to me at the time) and adding interesting abstract lyrics. A less wacky comparison would be to Lilys, who did a similar thing on their last couple of albums, but with '60s Kinks-style pop (and they wisely kept the Mod fashions). Well on "Navy Blues" Sloan takes the best of '70s power pop and smashes it together while filtering out the cheesy elements. This is a dream come true for me, because I've always loved the meaty, catchy hooks of power pop but found a lot of the subject matter and attitude to be kind of cringe-inducing. This is a lot more than just a Cheap Trick pastiche, too; they also have elements of Todd Rundgren, John Lennon, Elton John, and loads of others I don't know enough to identify, I'm sure. "Iggy & Angus" even starts with a nod to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". They're also clever enough to hide their smarts behind song titles like "C'mon C'mon" and "Chester the Molester". What they do actually creates kind of a strange dichotomy of form and content--you could argue that by taking a style which is inherently kinda dumb and smartening it up, Sloan is bastardizing the genre in a way. On the other hand, it's so well done and so enjoyable that it's hard to argue with. And when has smartening ever been a bad idea? (mike.05.02)
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