Sloan
Parallel Play (Yep Roc)
By Soo Oh
Published: June 17th, 2008 | 1:00pm
It's difficult to imagine an act more overlooked than Canadian power-pop foursome Sloan. Perhaps it's the egalitarian arrangement — each member writes songs, sings lead vocals, and trades off instruments — that has the average person confused over which frontman to idolize (Correct answer: all). For whatever reason, 17 years of solid music-making never left a substantial impression stateside, and with Sloan's prime years long past, it's unfortunate that their ninth studio album,
Sloan has the air of a band that was never forced to abandon their teenage emotions upon hitting legal drinking age; after all, their harmonic vocals and melodies say less about pseudo-conscious punk-rock rebellion and more about the unheralded transition from blithe youth to cynical grown-up. But how does such boyish energy hold up when the youngest member approaches his 39th year?
Pretty well, in fact. Cocky buoyancy and moxie are hard to reconcile with the onset of day jobs, mounting bills, and hungry progeny, among other constants of the real world, but life probably looks a whole lot different when you've been lucky enough to tour and perform consistently for nearly two decades. "No, I don't dream for a living, I'm just living the dream," sings Chris Murphy matter-of-factly on "Living the Dream." Later, on "I'm Not a Kid Anymore," he denounces the boring security of his adulthood before wailing over and over, "I'm not a kid anymore!"
That’s right — marvelous, restless anthems titled accordingly. Not too subtle, but precocity, wistfulness, sincerity, and audacity rarely are. Sloan may be getting on in their years, yet there's no reason why a discerning listener can't find comfort in their slightly immature but eternally sweet adolescence.
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Sloan's MySpace page
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