The legendary record will be performed front-to-back.
by Morgan Mullin
When Sloan dropped Navy Blues in 1998, it was after a few tumultuous years of attempted solo side projects and the hard work of cracking the U.S. market. Perhaps the reason why people went so nuts for the record was because it was proof their favourite band had weathered the storm—and still had its same sense of irreverent rock 'n' roll in a post–One Chord To Another world.
Or perhaps the band that made everyone believe we were the Seattle of the North needed no redemption arc. Perhaps the fact that the entire album slaps, even today, is enough.
Regardless of which camp you fall in, Sloan fans will be psyched to hear the four-piece is coming to Halifax to play the record in its entirety followed by a set of classic hits on May 2 at 9pm at The Marquee Ballroom.
In the meantime, fuel your excitement/nostalgia with this definitive ranking of all Sloan songs, from worst to best—and the time Halifax voted Sloan's turmoil—"from them breaking up to them not breaking up, with lots of bitterness about the band moving to Toronto"—the worst thing in the live music scene in 1998 in that year's Best of Halifax Readers' Choice Awards.
As we look back on the alternative and indie music scene of the past decade, it’s clear that the best albums were also the most forward-thinking, original, and experimental. Jack White’s Boarding House Reach interwove different sounds and genres into a cohesive whole that still rocked and rolled. Lorde’s Melodrama zeroed in on the growing pains of adolescence with painful, incisive detail. Unfortunately, on Anyway Gang’s eponymous debut, the band does little to close out the decade with a respectable performance. Failing to explore different sounds or pen interesting lyrics, the band falls short of any meaningful impact.
Anyway Gang is a recently formed Canadian supergroup consisting of Sam Roberts, Menno Versteeg of Hollerado, Dave Monks of Tokyo Police Club, and Chris Murphy of Sloan. They are signed to the label Royal Mountain Records, along with other notable Canadian acts in the indie scene such as Mac Demarco and Alvvays. Anyway Gang struggles to live up to their labelmates’ reputations and don’t even manage to live up to the standards set by its previous solo works.
The lyrics on the album are painfully unoriginal and made worse by the whining, yelping vocals. Songs such as “Everybody Cries” and “Square One” feature choruses as boring as “Everybody cries / Everybody cries sometimes” and verses as uninspired as “Just put one foot in front of the other / We’ve all been there one time or another.” The songs all have the same jangly guitar-strumming, skipping rhythms, and dull cliches, as if the band used a formula devised for crafting forgettable indie rock.
Believe it or not, the lowest point on the project is actually not these two songs but the “Interlude” nestled between them in the tracklist. The vocal straining and overly serious tone of the 43-second snippet bodes poorly for listeners determined to make it through the rest of the album.
The four lines of the “Interlude” are enough to make any English teacher cringe, with no identifiable theme holding the lyrics together. “Cause without rain, there’s no shine / Without a stone, there’s no stream / And on the way, down the line / This’ll all just be a dream,” they sing. Common platitudes put to rhythm and melody, these lines do little to illuminate the purpose of the track or to function as a true interlude and connect elements of the album.
The one bright spot on the album comes on the sixth track, “Eyes of Green.” It features a catchy acoustic melody; confident, passionate vocals; and swirling choral echoes in the background. For the first time on the album, it seems that Anyway Gang is clicking and successfully recreating the sound of other indie acts known for producing energetic anthems: Blossoms, Sundara Karma, and Circa Waves. Unlike other songs on the album, the different members’ vocals meld together perfectly, and the song sounds like a true group effort.
Within this track, the tension builds with driving percussion and heartfelt choruses until one of the members starts howling, “It’s too late to turn back now.” It is a defining moment that shifts into an electric guitar solo that would have made the song better if extended. Unlike other tracks such as “Fly Francisco” and “Only One,” which are more sentimental and subdued, this song is fast and powerful and clearly suits the band’s sound better.
It’s perhaps harsh to characterize this album as a complete failure, as the song “Eyes of Green” shows promise, and the artists in the supergroup are all accomplished musicians in their own right. The project would have been improved if some of the weaker tracks were either revised or even cut entirely so the band could put its best foot forward on its debut.
It’s unfortunate that Anyway Gang didn’t take more risks on its debut, something it could have easily gotten away with since it’s understandable that as a new band, the members are still refining their sound. The group’s self-proclaimed motto is “three-chord maximum.” While this style has worked for bands as iconic as the Ramones and the Strokes, these past rock legends used these chords to greater effect, providing a bigger punch in their songs than the ones on Anyway Gang’s album. Three chords work sometimes, but Anyway Gang should realize that simplicity leaves no margin for error.
Last night in Toronto was 15th annual Andy Kim Christmas Show, which featured appearances from Ron Sexsmith, Sloan, Bif Naked, Men Without Hats, Crash Test Dummies, Jane Siberry, and more. As part of their set Sloan brought out surprise guest Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene and the great Tracey Ullman to pay tribute to Pete Shelley (who died almost exactly a year ago) and cover Buzzcocks’ classic “Why Can’t I Touch It?” Sloan joked on Instagram, “We were starting to think this was never gonna get crossed off our very extensive and specific bucket list: ‘sing a Buzzcocks song onstage with Kevin Drew and Tracey Ullman.’” If you’re wondering, Tracey Ullman did her hit cover of Kirsty MacColl’s “They Don’t Know” elsewhere in the evening. Watch video of both, below.
Sloan are in the midst of their Navy Blues tour where they’re performing that 1998 album in full. East Coast dates start in February and includes a NYC stop at Bowery Ballroom on February 20.
Sloan were Canadian legends throughout their '90s heyday. Sam Roberts reigned supreme over mid-2000s airwaves. But it's arguably the glossy, gleeful sheen of younger True North rising stars Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado that characterize much of the tone of Anyway Gang, the eponymous debut of a super-group featuring members of all four of those well-established Canucks acts.
Throughout most of these brisk and blissful nine tracks, Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado frontmen Dave Monks and Menno Versteeg, respectively, offer peppy sing-alongs aplenty and hooks gargantuan enough to clog any arena. Frequent Hollerado producer Gus Van Go, meanwhile, helms this effort, ensuring the tone glistens like the most modern of rock gems.
Take "Everybody Cries," which features earnestly shrill singing and thunderclap percussion. Its refrain about relatable weeping would be a bland platitude, if not for the sincerity in the vocal delivery (and a goofy, breathless speak-singy midway breakdown that's sure to leave the Barenaked Ladies salivating with envy). "Eyes of Green" is all the more punchy and poppy, even though its toned-down tempo renders it practically a ballad alongside most of these other speedy tracks. Then there's "Square One," an endlessly jaunty piano-laden number, and "Only You," which is put over the top by its impassioned handclaps.
Roberts and Sloan's Chris Murphy — the relative elders in this supergroup foursome — are, of course, no strangers to radio-ready hooks. But their comparatively stripped-back pedigree makes for a jarring juxtaposition on production more typically associated with young bucks Monks and Versteeg. Regardless, the veteran rockers have a blast with that slickly trendy backdrop, bellowing and soloing along with youthful abandon, especially on the respective stadium rafter shaking opener and closer "Big Night" and "Lost Boy." So, yes, the Anyway Gang are a disparate crew, but that just makes for a uniquely fun combination.
