Customer Reviews

One Chord to Another

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's hard for me to evaluate One Chord To Another unbiased because I love Sloan, but then I realized thats really just as important as the music. The 90's were filled with power-pop, 60s/70s revivalists, Beatlesy, Brian Wilsony (that doesn't look right) bands and they're all pretty good but Sloan easily aces all of them. This is because Sloan have...Personality! They're four really cool, funny (in a shy, sardonic kinda way) guys from Halifax, can't beat that. And they are all very gifted songwriters. This album is actually one of their least consistent in quality (which is why I give it a four), but its a thoroughly enjoyable listen from beginning to end. And there's so much more to the songs then just great melodies and 60's musical arraingements, the lyrics are very playful, complex and deep, especially for a pop band. The Lines You Amend is bouncy number about a guy who's girlfriend committed suicide in a lake yet it never feels morbid and is actually funny. Nothing Left To Make Me Want To Stay is endlessly listenable due to its pleasingly complex chord progression and great lyrics. Take The Bench is a anthemic power-pop song about a little girl being forced to play piano for the adults and all the ironies, pathos, and insights involved in the situation. As you listen to this album (and others by Sloan) more and more you'll realize the amazing amount of subtle touches they have in their songs. All in all this album has a great feel that sadly I think they lost on Navy Blues in exchange for immediately catchy songs but thats another story...

In the movie 'High Fidelity', some of the characters list their favorite opening tracks of all time. If I were doing that, 'The Good In Everyone' from this, Sloan's third album, would be in the top five of MY list. This is everything a good opening (rock) track should be: aggressive, grand, & somewhat shambolic (remember 'Taxman'?) And it only gets better from there!

By this album, Sloan had left their grunge roots behind and made what was to be the style of all subsequent Sloan albums, 60's pop sensibility, 70's stadium rock presentation, and a very modern indie-rock wryness...especially in their lyrics. I actually like their grunge stuff, but albums such as this and Navy Blues, etc., show that they are capable of so much more. With all four Sloan members writing and singing, not to mention occasionally switching instrument roles, a huge variety of sounds are available...and Sloan uses them all. Grand stadium rock in 'The Good In Everyone', Brian Wilson-esque introverted pop on 'Junior Panthers', neo-grunge indie zoom on 'G Turns To D'...there's a little of everything here. Yet it all sounds consistent and it always sounds like.....Sloan! The songs may take a few listens to 'sink in', but they will, and they're worth it.

Of course, any good (male) pop band needs songs about girls, and Sloan are no exception...except that their perspective is very different. 'Take The Bench' is addressed to a young girl performing a recital for a less-than-receptive audience, 'Everything You've Done Wrong' is about a girl who is about to serve a prison sentence, and 'The Lines You Amend' (a brilliant pop gem) is about a girlfriend who just killed herself! Everything in Sloan's world is slightly skewed...

Sloan should be as popular as any indie artist you can name. Unfortunately, they are almost unknown in the U.S. I guess being from Halifax, Nova Scotia doesn't really put you at the center of the music industry. It's a shame, really, and if you like extremely well-crafted pop-rock with a certain 'retro' feel, yet unlike anything else going on right now, you owe it to yourself to get at least one Sloan album. And if you can get this CD with the bonus disc, 'Live At A Sloan Party', do so...it's a great example of their early 'basement' days with covers of everyone from the Hollies to Stereolab, and an acoustic Simon & Garfunkel -esque version of "I Am The Cancer' ( ! ). Lots of fun!

One Chord to Another was originally released by a label called The Enclave, not Geffen, as listed here. It's since been re-released on Sloan's Murder Records. It's Sloan's 3rd full length and is excellent. This little gem includes a bonus CD of Sloan performing live at a house party. It's rough, it's sweet, it's tight, it's funny, it's energizing, it's intimate, it's everything a Sloan fan is looking for and includes a good mix of Sloan classics and some cool covers (including an interesting take on Roxy Music's "Over You").

What makes Sloan such a great band is that they borrow only the best elements of rock and pop's greatest decades coupled with the fact that there are four distinctly individual songwriters in the band striving for a democratic vision of rock and roll greatness. The result is perhaps the greatest music being released in the new millenium and in recent years. With all of these attributes, it would seem difficult to produce any bad material. "One Chord To Another" isn't bad, but it certainly isn't rock greatness. It is, however, a bridge between eras for Canada's Fab Four. With all of the brash, lyrically playful songwriting of their early years, and the warm Lo-fi production of their recent efforts, this is an album of a band realizing it's capabilities and desires. The form is there (i.e. grungy garage guitars, carboard boxy drums, and trebly punchy bass), but the substance is lacking. Chris Murphy's heavy handed lyrics dominate the album. At times, they're so wordy they slip past your attention and become a noise that's so omnipresent that you don't even notice it, like a washing machine. This is most evident in the confusing "Autobiography" and "Anyone Who's Anyone".But When Patrick Pentland takes the songwriting pen,it's little wonder he gets the albums first two singles. "The Good In Everyone" is rock fun at it's most primal and "Everything You've Done Wrong" is so catchy you'd swear you've heard it on FM radio before. In the same vein, Jay Ferguson's boyish charm and syrupy sweet pop senses make a topic as dark as losing a love to suicide catchy in "The Lines You Amend". Drummer Andrew Scott also grows immensely from his formative years as "A-side Wins" and "400 metres" foreshadow his psychedelic masterpieces to come. All in all this is classic Sloan. There are enough of the elements to appeal to any Sloan fan. But with it's general lack of hooks, choruses, etc. it just may appeal ONLY to Sloan fans.

I was just surfing through and knew I just had to say something. This is a wonderful album. Spare but never without its florishes. Every song has what it should and no less. You can play spot the influence with this album but you are kind of missing the point. This is about returning rock to an uncluttered form. After their intial release, it was all about peeling back the layers. They find the core of songs like "a side wins" or "everything you've done is wrong" and stick close to it. Sure it is simple and it is pop, but in the best possible way. It is both reverent to the past and timeless. So if you got problems with unaffected heart on the sleeve pop, you won't like this. They have such a well adjusted blanced lyric style, you might be thrown in these angst ridden times by the down to earth honest style. That said songs as "anyone who's anyone" or "G turns to D" deliver tasteful touches of dissonance and punk. At the time this album was intially released it was so much different from what constituted Indie Rock, that it was positively backdated. But now with the flurry of power pop that has arose in recent years, it is apparent that Sloan was way ahead of the curve. And that is what is so great about Sloan and this album. They came to it naturally. Before I close this up let me give a nod to "take the bench" for it's wonderful bit of Stones style horns. It rocks but it is so modestly real in a way that much alternative rock misses. If you can make sure to get the double cd version which includes a live disc which includes covers of Roxy Music and Stereolab. It wasn't the first Sloan disc I got (That would be Navy Blue) but it is the album that made me a diehard fan.

This album bridges the pure pop majesty of 'Twice Removed' with the riff-rocking attitude of 'Navy Blues'. Thus, it lacks the cohesiveness of those two masterpieces. That being said, it is still a Sloan album, and any Sloan album is a great album to my ears.

The pop songs are fairly good. "Autobiography" relies heavily on Chris Murphy's penchant for wordplay. "Writing 'young and gifted'" in the first verse, the narrator decides that "I'm certainly the former but I'm not so much the latter". In the second verse, he decides to take a shave, "which would suggest that I'm the foamer but how can I be the lather?" His lyrics always provide fun little nuggets like that to tickle your brain. Jay Ferguson takes his first step up to the mic with the lovely "The Lines You Amend". It's a melancholy little ditty that at first hearing sounds pleasant, but when you pay close attention to the lyrics you realize that the guy's girlfriend just threw herself in the lake! "And I'm sittin' on the shore, I thought I saw your charm float by," he sings sadly.

The riff rockers are somewhat childlike and innocent. They don't really want to rock totally out, but they make a good college try. "Nothing Left to Make Me Want to Say" takes a rigid and raw guitar intro, and slaps a chunky start-and-stop bass and drum groove underneath it. And its melody lines are long and appealing. "G Turns to D" moves this way and that during its verses, and lands squarely on top of a great chorus. And as the title suggests, it's a song about songwriting ("G will turn to D / You'll turn to me / And you'll say / 'You have done me wrong, / I wrote these songs about it'").

And "Everything You've Done Wrong" adds -- gasp! -- Chicago-style horns! But Sloan -- dear, dear Sloan -- makes it work beautifully.

"One Chord to Another", and the "Sloan Party Album", are essential to any Sloan fan. "One Chord to Another" has so many great tracks, all of which are full of Sloans catchy, intelligent lyrics. This album is highlighted by such hits as "The Good in Everyone", and the "Everything You've Done Wrong", and is complimented by a great collection of witty well written songs like "The Lines You Amend" and "Junior Partners." The "Sloan Party" CD is full of classic Sloan tracks, and is a nice introduction to old Sloan music. It has some classic tunes that are done with a new twist. "I am the Cancer", a Sloan standard never sounded better than it does on this album. I can sum up this this review in two words: Buy it! Trust me, you'll love it.

How can you help but love this album? No matter what crisis has taken over my personal life, I can't help but feel better when I lay down on the couch and put on this fine disc. Almost as good as "Twice Removed", which is to say, almost perfection. Canada's best band? Hm, I'd still have to give that honour to the amazing Rheostatics (who I notice are not listed in the amazon database), but Sloan puts forth a fine effort. Win one for the gipper, boys.

Sloan put it all together on this, its third full-length album. It might be a bit too much like the Beatles for some, but it's excellent power pop. The original version was packaged with a bonus disc that simulates a party at which Sloan is providing the entertainment (much like the Beach Boys once did). Cool!

The first time I'd ever heard Sloan was when "The Good in Everyone" was getting mild rotation on a local station. I was floored by the song, as it seemed to be an original work with many of the best parts of other bands; like an alloy made stronger by the mixing of it's components. Beatlesesque? Sure. Beach Boys "Pet Sounds?" I can accept that. Yet, it is much more accessable for contemporary listeners than either of these, as it seperates the wheat from the chaff, and delivers the goods. It's a shame that Sloan receive no more recogntion than they do, because their composional skill is largely overlooked. But don't let their lack of notoriety put you off: if you've got a serious hankerin' for catchy hooks delivered with poetic lyrics, Sloan is the cure.