by Bob Mersereau
I always thought the four members of Sloan should do what Kiss did in 1978, each release a solo album. The timing couldn't be better. They could have done them on oh-so-hot vinyl, and even dolled themselves up in make-up just to continue the joke. But the real benefit would be allowing each of the four members to write a full album's worth of material. After all, they've all been contributing to the band albums since the start. I've always wondered what each could come up with if 40 minutes was needed.
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Anyway, the group kind of went with this concept, just not on such a grand scale as my perfect (and humble) idea. Each member of the four-headed monster (Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Andrew Scott, Jay Ferguson) takes roughly one-fourth of the album, and instead of mixing the songs up, they are presented all together. Jay starts with five short tracks, Chris chimes in with his five, Patrick offers four, and Andrew just has one, but it's a whopping 17-plus minutes long, giving him the most time on the album.
The group proceeds to do what they do, with Ferguson contributing the purest pop, Murphy the cleverest and catchiest, Pentland the hardest-rocking, and Scott the wild-card. Pentland's Keep Swinging (Downtown) matches CanRock 70's (BTO, April Wine) with Bowie out-there. Murphy comes out with the line of the album, as he usually does: "Did you learn nothing from five seasons of The Wire? When it comes down to it, everybody meant well before their lives went to hell." Scott's epic starts part-Pet Sounds (the barking dog part), part-rejected ideas for a Pink Floyd album (when they tried to make the follow-up to Dark Side using household items instead of instruments), but then becomes a huge, multi-song collection about life and not getting messed up by the ego-play going on in your head and around you, sticking to all the love that's available: "If happiness lies deep within us, how come most deny it for themselves?" It features a children's choir at one point, orchestra parts, and is the Who-rock opera bit on the album, a grand accomplishment. As for the short and sweet, that's Ferguson's domain, and You've Got A Lot On Your Mind is the power-pop hit that never was, while Three Sisters is the production-rich dreamy ballad. Enjoying the concept of a suite of songs, Ferguson brings back the hook line from You've Got A Lot On Your Mind for the ending of Cleopatra.
So, there is lots of playfulness going on, all the members getting into the "one-side each" idea. My complaint is that they sold themselves short, that less in this case was not more. Actually, I've thought that for the group's whole career, there's just too much talent being squeezed in to each project. Four albums boys, I'm serious here.
--taken from: CBC East Coast Music
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