How I Like Sloan: The Playlists

I know this game is gauche, but I love it, so buckle the fuck up: Sloan has been making albums for as long as the Beach Boys had made albums when Sloan started. 1962: Beach Boys’ Surfin Safari. 1992: Sloan, Smeared. 2022: Where we are now. Think about it won’t you? Thank you.

Of course, if you primarily associate the name Sloan with Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend, this fun fact must not resonate deeply. But if you’re a well-versed alternaindie fan, or Canadian, it could mean a lot. Sloan was and is four guys from Halifax, Nova Scotia who’ve managed to stick together for decades despite being the rare band where every band member writes and every band member sings lead. Being four college age guys in Halifax, Nova Scotia didn't keep the band from releasing their debut album on Geffen Records less than two years after forming. The gorgeous grunge-pop of 1992’s Smeared fit right in on DGC sonically, but had a cute lyrical wryness even beyond their contemporaries overseas in Teenage Fanclub (spotted on a t-shirt in the “Underwhelmed” video). Anxious to avoid stereotyping and aiming for something more timeless, Sloan shifted their melodic rock away from pedal-hopping on the 1994 follow-up Twice Removed, alienating Geffen but impressing everybody else who was paying attention. Again: all four members wrote and sang great songs.

With Geffen not promoting Twice Removed but not dropping them, this was basically it for the band. It probably would have stayed that way, if bassist Christ Murphy and guitarist Jay Ferguson (the only two that knew each other before college) didn’t have a label called Murderrecords. They decided a new Sloan album would raise the label's profile, and guitarist Patrick Pentland and drummer Andrew Scott were game. So they left Geffen and made 1996’s One Chord To Another, another leap away from the alternative rock cliche with AM radio sensibilities and baroque flourishes (horn charts! “latter”/“lather” wordplay!). American indie-poppers were impressed (the album was released in the US by The Enclave, a short-lived label that initially pushed Belle & Sebastian before Matador) and kids in Canada went relatively gaga, the album going gold, winning a Juno and putting two singles in the Top 10. Not exactly the Beatles, but for four Nova Scotians on their own label? Close enough.

The band’s kept on keeping on ever since, creating a unique style of amiable arena rock with pop crossover singles, like a Weezer who really knew their Beach Boys albums, wouldn’t dream of pandering to their audience, and conveyed a backstage vibe more friendly than creepy. Their relative stature at home (Twice Removed and One Chord To Another are as perennial to All-Time Best Canadian Album polls as Harvest and Blue) allowed them a degree of confidence and grandeur stateside bands don’t get a chance to achieve without the chore of working the corporate game. In some ways, they’re a Canadian R.E.M. as much as a Canadian Beatles - four young guys who quickly realized a shared vision of paradisiacal pop-rock and maintained a unified front to achieve it, becoming crossover flag bearers for their national underground. Sloan’s Peter and Bill just happen to sing lead, too.

Their new album Steady is their best in a while - the unprecedented experience of lockdown has given a songwriting goose to a lot of lifer bands - but they’ve done a stunning job of never losing the script for the last 30 years. While unafraid of a novel concept to keep things interesting (2014’s Commonwealth gave each band member their own LP side, 2003’s Action Pact gave an outside producer enough weight that drummer Andrew Scott didn’t have any songs!), they've maintained a focus on catchy songcraft throughout. And nobody's left! That's wild! Or remarkably tame!

With so many goodies to choose from, I came up with two different playlists for two different mediums (and please, please remember that these aren’t best-ofs, but greats-from, meant to encourage further investigation. Where is that song you love? Right where you left it, and I hope people bother to find it). The Spotify playlist is non-chronological, one song from each of their first 12 albums, three songs written by each band member, intending to convey a sense of their enduring gifts and musical gestalt. The YouTube one is chronological, consisting solely of official videos, including two from Twice Removed (likely my fave, and usually Canada’s) as well as one from the new album.

While the video playlist is just as musically delectable and almost as diverse (Jay and Andrew still get two appearances, only two later albums get ignored entirely), the goal here is to get across the evolution and appeal of their image as well. Only two of the videos don’t feature them miming at their instruments (and in the case of “Friendship,” actually playing them live). Either they or their directors know there’s something about seeing Chris take a couplet on a Jay song, Chris and Patrick harmonizing, Chris stepping behind the drum kit for an Andrew number. On some level, the most evocative image of Sloan might be two guys with moptops stepping to the same mic and singing “it’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans.” The band in question was Consolidated. Remember them?

How I Like Sloan: The Playlist (Spotify)

1. “Spin Our Wheels” (12, 2018, Chris Murphy)
2. “The Answer Was You” (The Double Cross, 2011, Jay Ferguson)
3. “Iggy & Angus” (Navy Blues, 1998, Patrick Pentland)
4. “Emergency 911” (Parallel Play, 2008, Andrew Scott)
5. “False Alarm” (Action Pact, 2003, Jay Ferguson)
6. “G Turns To D” (One Chord To Another, 1996, Chris Murphy)
7. “500 Up” (Smeared, 1992, Andrew Scott)
8. “It’s In Your Eyes” (Pretty Together, 2001, Patrick Pentland)
9. “Deeper Than Beauty” (Twice Removed, 1994, Chris Murphy)
10. “Take It Easy” (Commonwealth, 2014, Patrick Pentland)
11. “Before The End of The Race” (Never Hear The End Of It, 2006, Jay Ferguson)
12. “Delivering Maybes” (Between The Bridges, 1999, Andrew Scott)

How I Like Sloan: The Videos (YouTube)

1. “Underwhelmed” (Smeared, 1992, Chris Murphy)
2. “Coax Me” (Twice Removed, 1992, Chris Murphy)
3. “People Of The Sky” (Twice Removed, 1994, Andrew Scott)
4. “The Lines You Amend” (One Chord To Another, 1996, Jay Ferguson)
5. “Money City Maniacs” (Navy Blues, 1998, Patrick Pentland)
6. “Friendship” (Between The Bridges, 1999, Patrick Pentland)
7. “The Other Man” (Pretty Together, 2001, Chris Murphy)
8. “The Rest Of My Life” (Action Pact, 2003, Chris Murphy)
9. “I’ve Gotta Try” (Never Hear The End Of It, 2006, Andrew Scott)
10. “Witch’s Wand” (Parallel Play, 2008, Jay Ferguson)
11. “Unkind” (The Double Cross, 2011, Patrick Pentland)
12. “Scratch The Surface” (Steady, 2022, Patrick Pentland)