SLOAN
All music and lyrics by Sloan
SLOAN:
Jay Ferguson: Vocals, Guitars, Bass Guitar, Drums
Chris Murphy: Vocals, Bass Guitar, Piano, Drums, Guitars
Patrick Pentland: Vocals, Guitars, Bass Guitar, Keyboards
Andrew Scott: Vocals, Drums, Guitars
with
Gregory Macdonald: Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals
Produced by Sloan and Ryan Haslett with Gregory Macdonald
Released September 9, 2014
Ooooh! I really hope that I am able to convince you to give this one a try!!!
"Commonwealth" by Sloan, the highly celebrated Canadian power pop band, yet severely unknown here in the United States, is far and away one of the best album releases I have heard in 2014. It is a work that can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with the best efforts that I have heard this year from the likes of Beck, The Roots, Prince, Pixies, Meshell Ndegeocello and Ryan Adams yet it is also a collection of songs that serves as a healthy reminder of a songwriting tradition, performance and craft that seems to be largely forgotten in our extremely homogenized and increasingly plastic musical age of the 21st century.
Sloan is indeed as described as they are definitely a "power pop" band, much like what you would hear if you listened to Badfinger, Dwight Twilley or Big Star. They are heavily Beatles influenced as you can easily hear through the lushness of their sound, their choirboy vocal harmonies, their strong lyrical wordplay, the sheer energy of their musicianship and their ability to pack as much actual music into concise two to three minute or so packages, and sometimes even less than that! And furthermore, as well as to describe the "power" aspect of the band, Sloan can excitedly bash it out like Cheap Trick, making for an album experience that is as highly charged as it is beautifully melodic.
I truly have known nothing of Sloan aside from one track that was included on the film soundtrack of Writer/Director Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides" (1999) and even then, I wondered if Sloan was indeed a lost band from the early 1970's instead of a group born in the 1990's as the sound of the group just reached exquisitely backwards, forcing me to recall a certain musical tenor that existed during my childhood. That very same yet elusive and incredibly unique sound reached me again just last month when I was visiting B-Side Records to make a purchase and the store's proprietor Steve Manley just happened to have Sloan's latest album blaring through the store speakers. As Steve and I spoke while I made my purchases, I found my end of the conversation stopped on two occasions due to what I was hearing, this luscious amalgam of The Beatles, Brian Wilson, garage rick, psychedelia and 70's AM radio bubblegum. After leaving the store, I could not get what I had heard out of my brain and I just needed to go and get it as soon as I was able. If my words can inspire you to seek out this band and this particular album, then I have performed my job to the very best of my abilities.
"Commonwealth," Sloan's 11th album, and quite possibly titled after an especially bizarre and still unreleased Beatles track, finds the band operating at what has been deemed their most ambitious offering to date and that even includes one previous (and terrific) album, the humorously entitled "Never Hear The End Of It" (released January 9, 2007) on which they delivered a whopping 30 songs!
Keeping in tune with some perceptions of the hodge-podge, jigsaw puzzle nature of "The Beatles" (released November 22, 1968) as also with the four simultaneously released KISS solo albums (all released September 18, 1978), "Commonwealth" is a double album on which each member of Sloan takes one side of the "deck of cards" themed album as sole lead singer and songwriter, making for an experience that sort of sounds like four solo albums in one yet also stands firmly as one grand statement from the veteran band. Since all of the band members are multi-instrumentalists, it is unknown if each section features each member working completely independently or if they utilized their bandmates as session musicians. But no matter the means, the overall effect of the album is as exhilarating as it is staggering.
Side One, the "Diamond Side," belongs to guitarist Jay Ferguson. Utilizing the second half of The Beatles' "Abbey Road" (released September 26, 1969) as a template, Ferguson crafts a seamless McCartney-esque suite of five songs that opens with the Mott The Hoople glam rock stomp of "We've Come This Far" which then effortlessly segues into the instantly catchy and nearly Bay City Rollers candy cane pop display of "You've Got A Lot On Your Mind" and then glides beautifully into the slow jam "Three Sisters," complete with elegant guitar solos abound and all presented in precisely 8 minutes. The jaunty "Cleopatra" quickens the pace as it also re-introduces musical themes from the previous selections before settling down peacefully with the gentle and acoustic driven "Neither Here Nor There."
If Side One displayed the sugar coated pop, then Side Two, the "Heart Side," finds bassist Chris Murphy bringing in more of the amplified power. "Carried Away," a cautionary tale about an open relationship gone very wrong just soars with its killer chorus that augmented by the lovingly displayed Mellotrons and driving beat. The mournful sounding "So Far So Good," is an album highlight as it features the very type of melodic and harmonic progressions that, to my ears, have not been heard in quite this fashion since the days of Queen and also contains lyrics of sly pop cultural wit ("Don't be surprised when we elect another liar/Did you learn nothing from 5 seasons of 'The Wire'?"). "Get Out" percolates vigorously and shows exactly how a band can make a complete song in just 1 minute and 40 seconds. "Misty's Beside Herself" remains the album's finest, warmest ballad, which also possesses a perfect sing-a-long chorus and Murphy saves the very best of his side's material for last as the high flying "You Don't Need Excuses To Be Good" throws the electric guitars, propulsive drumming and swirling vocal harmonies to the forefront, ending the side with a perfect punch.
By Side Three, the "Shamrock Side," guitarist Patrick Pentland updates the classic pop sound to more of a darkly psychedelic set as the metallic sheen of the tracks vaguely reminded me of Love And Rockets' self titled album (released May 1989). "13 (Under A Bad Sign)" and "Take It Easy" sound like two sides of the same motorcycle music coin whereas "What's Inside" possesses a more ghostly palate and the closing "Keep Swinging (Downtown)" returns to the more 70's AM radio hit single vibe.
Leave it to the drummer to create the most audacious sequence found on "Commonwealth," Side Four's "Spade Side." Like Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" (released October 25, 1969), another album where the band's individual members each crafted a suite of their own songs, drummer Andrew Scott's "Forty Eight Portraits" is quite the undertaking. Beginning with nearly three minutes worth of ambient sound consisting of dogs barking, knocking and click-clacking percussion and airy, free form piano cords, Scott launches us through a nearly 18 minute pastiche where the sprawling melodies and movements feel as if they have all been sprung from a musical patchwork quilt. References to The Beach Boys and The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" flow directly alongside strings, horns, and even children's choirs and damned if the song somehow holds together masterfully and miraculously.
Sloan's "Commonwealth" is yet another album released this year that truly serves as a much needed reminder of the value of hearing real musicians playing real instruments as well as existing as an antidote to the completely disposable pop music that has littered the airwaves from radios to television stations and the internet itself. In fact, if Sloan has performed anything so heroically is to release such a splendidly sublime album that re-educates us all to the artfulness of pop music, a genre that has never received terribly much respect but at its best houses the likes of not only The Beatles, but also someone like Frank Sinatra. The skill and discipline it must have to be able to conceive and construct pieces of music that convey concise themes, stories and messages of such universality is a gift I truly believe that we should cherish as much as any piece of literature, painting or sculpture and with this album, Sloan has delivered the goods, a collection of songs that should be plastered throughout the radio airwaves...if we could only reclaim a certain sense of cultural taste and wrestle the lowest common denominator pap of anacondas to the ground.
"You know I hear in terms of colours," sings Andrew Scott during "Forty Eight Portraits," and for me, my special brand of synesthesia has received a thorough workout via Sloan's "Commonwealth," an album I sincerely urge you to seek out. I guarantee that you will be flying as high as the music itself if you give it an honest chance.
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