sloan: C or D

Appears to be a new Sloan LP due in May. A new song is on the sloanmusic.com site and it's ace, in my opinion.

kind of paint-by-numbers Sloan until the breakdown in the middle...very good stuff.

that song seems ok at first listen, but sure doesn't do much to put a stop to Chris Murphy vs. Matt Murphy confusion.

sounds really good

the leak is impressing me a lot

New album today.

But is it any good?

Not so far :/

did you learn nothing from five season of the wire

haven't listened yet, is that really a 17-minute track at the end

I didn't make it that far. I admire their attempt to make an ALBUM in 2014 (segues between songs, callbacks to earlier songs, etc) but the sequencing is weird with a bunch of ballads in a row then a few rockers in a row etc. but mostly I just didn't hear many hooks.

Apparently it's one songwriter per "side"

Hmm, maybe it's a good thing Reckless didn't have any copies of this today.

Sloan didn't make good record since NHTEOI

it's not bad, give it another chance or two and things may click.

I had no idea that Sloan had put out ten albums by now. TEN ALBUMS. I was trying to keep up back when I had access to Spotify, but I guess I really let it slide.

Haven't listened yet, but The Double Cross from a couple of years back was the first Sloan album that I had actually liked since the 90s, so...

Yeah, I found The Double Cross to be really strong. I gave this new one a quick listen and found it rather forgettable.

yeah this one is a little disappointing after the last 3 albums made for a really strong late career revival. their stuff usually grows on me, though. i'll give it time. the 17-minute song might actually be the best thing about it.

i recently did playlists of the best songs by each member of the group, think it's cool that they're giving each songwriter their own section of the album for the first time on this one:
http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-imaginary-box-set-sloan.html

canadian wizards / canadian true stars

I'd definitely recommend checking out Nude Beach's 77 album - they seem to be picking up where Never Heard the End of It left off.

Sloan live set on WFMU last night

"You've got a lot on your mind" came on the radio the other day, fantastic for a sunny winter afternoon.

Had this album been released as four EPs, Patrick Pentland's side would have been the best EP of the year.

Haven't really gotten too into the newest one but my early impression is that Pentland's contributions are easily the worst of the four sides. In fact, I feel he's been consistently the worst songwriter in Sloan for at least ten years. .

Pentland's four are the ones that sound best in my car. Not the most sophisticated critical criteria, but...

Haven't really gotten too into the newest one but my early impression is that Pentland's contributions are easily the worst of the four sides. In fact, I feel he's been consistently the worst songwriter in Sloan for at least ten years.

i'd say that this had been true throughout their career. Chris Murphy is head and shoulders about the rest, in my opinion.

I'd say for the most part Andrew is proabably the worst songwriter in Sloan, though I preferred his side on this album over Patrick's.

Patrick has written the majority of their biggest songs, he can be kind of a one trick pony with the anthemic rockers but he's clearly not the weak link

Andrew is the least skilled of the 4 as a singer/songwriter but his big 17-minute track at the end of Commonwealth feels like the best part of the whole album and he's outshined the other guys on occasion before

sloan still put on a good show

patrick and jay have such weird personalities/stage presence though (not sure if these are bad things)

who's heard the new one?

He sounds a little old. Same great guitars.

Only heard the singles and they all sound good

Will give it a proper listen once the album is up on spotify

https://youtu.be/DorF5qxbCxc

I see what they did there

So I guess these past few weeks, Chris Murphy has been dealing with facial paralysis/Bell’s palsy. Seems to be in the mend, but must be quite an ordeal.

https://instagram.com/sloandude?igshid=ay3gt8xq0nm3

Chris Murphy and Matt "Superfriendz / Flashing Lights" Murphy - no relation, right?

Right. But they have a couple of albums together now as TUNS. Pretty fun.

Yes! The new one is pretty great! Sounds like ... an intersection of Sloan and Superfriendz / Flashing Lights. :)

Inbreds too. Cuz Mike O'Neill is in there with them. Also no relation.

Chris seems to be mostly recovered now btw. He’s recently posted some cute punk songs on Instagram where he’s accompanied by himself and his wife.

Mike O’Neill is such a great writer. I wish Neko Case would do a whole album of his tunes.

I'm really enjoying the new album.

"Dream It All Over Again" my favourite at the moment. I love the way the chorus takes off.

it's super good

I'm sure I'll end up listening to this but Commonwealth and 12 didn't have too many songs I liked. Even Jay, whose hit rate was highest, seemed to be falling off.

don't disagree with that, but man "Spin Our Wheels" absolutely kicks ass (to me), even after 100 listens.

Took until only a few weeks ago for 12 to finally click with me, lol whereas Steady, I’ve been enjoying more or less from the jump. Wasn’t super into Pat’s singles but they’re already late period classics for me now. Dream it All Over Again and Keep Your Name Alive, just fabulous Jay songs.

Still wrestling with Commonwealth, one of those admire/not love things. Could’ve worked better if they had changed up their individual sounds some, but the result is about what you’d expect, pretty samey.

Anyhow for 12, Spin Our Wheels, Day Will Be Mine, Essential Services, and all of Andrew’s songs work for me (likewise on Steady), Chris’s songs less so.