Thirty years after Canadian Indie Pop greats Sloan put out their debut, the band is back with their 13th studio album. Thankfully, not a whole lot has changed over the past three decades. Shockingly, the four founding members are all still in the band and they continue to hammer out a smart mix of power pop that blends a variety of influences from The Beatles and Cheap Trick to The Pixies. Steady is no different. Across a dozen tracks, the foursome – still trading vocals back and forth – stick to their trademark blend of smart, funny and often sunny pop rock with spiked guitars and fast drumming.
The new record opens on “Magical Thinking,” a song clearly inspired by some of the inane online theories popping up over the past few years that show people putting their feelings and personal theories up against actual science. It’s a fun song that musically seems agnostic to a specific era. The same can be said about “Spend The Day,” one of the album’s first singles and despite the lyrics centering around guitarist/singer Patrick Pentland being at his lowest after the breakup of his marriage, the song is surprisingly peppy. Two of the best moments here though are around some of the more mundane topics here like on the piano-heavy “Human Nature,” an addictively fun song about gossip. “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” a song about the downsides of touring, is also surprisingly satisfying in part thanks to knowing they are complaining about a situation many would gladly endure.
Sloan is a band that’s often name-checked by other musicians and have certainly built up a solidly loyal following over the years but have inexplicably never been huge outside of their native Canada. Steady likely won’t do much to change that but is certain to make even the most casual fans of the band happy.
One Response
Sloan’s musical consistency (over 30 years) is both their strength as well as a limitation. A strength in terms of quality songs and performances, that have not been compromised by seeking commercial appeal — to the extent that their type of pop-rock may be uncompromised.
In terms of limitations, their consistency has curtailed musical creativity and growth; which are marks of great bands. To be clear, they have grown and changed, but very incrementally. While not quite formulaic, their song and performance structures limit their moving in different creative directions.
Overall, given the high quality of their albums, its difficult to be very critical; and, nobody is interested in change just for the sake of change — that has ruined many bands.