Sloan - Never Hear the End of It
Tracklist:
- Flying High Again
- Who Taught You To Live Like That?
- I've Gotta Try
- Everybody Wants You
- Listen To The Radio
- Fading Into Obscurity
- I Can't Sleep
- Someone I Can Be True With
- Right Or Wrong
- Something's Wrong
- Ana Lucia
- Before The End Of The Race
- Blackout
- I Understand
- You Know What It's About
- Golden Eyes
- Can't You Figure It Out?
- Set In Motion
- Love Is All Around
- Will I Belong?
- Ill Placed Trust
- Live The Life You're Dreaming Of
- Living With The Masses
- HFXNSHC
- People Think They Know Me
- I Know You
- Last Time In Love
- It's Not The End Of The World
- Light Years
- Another Way I Could Do It
There’s not a damn thing wrong with being a rock-solid powerpop band, no matter how many “Stacy’s Mom”s or “Wonderwall”s happen to poison the airwaves. But every melody junkie has a limit, and at 30 tracks, Never Hear the End of It very nearly overstays its welcome, despite the fact that it happens to contain some of the best pop hooks you’ll hear all year.
In the span of nearly 15 years, Sloan have made a career out of emulating past trends and musicians, and Never Hear the End of It is no exception. Certain moments evoke more obvious influences—The Beatles here (“Fading Into Obscurity”, “You Know What It’s About”), The Who there (“I Can’t Sleep”, “People Think They Know Me”), even Queen (“Who Taught You to Live Like That?”)—while others tread in less familiar territory; The Creation, Cheap Trick, even The Doobies and Chicago seem to have been part of the band’s formative years.
But even if the band wears its influences on its collective sleeve, one can hardly fault Sloan when there are so many in the mix. After all, if Guided by Voices can be lauded for basically being a lo-fi version of The Who, Sloan should at least get as many props for straddling so many branches of the rock tree and distilling them all into an irresistibly catchy blend.
But the problem with Never Hear is that, like many efforts from the aforementioned GbV, there is indeed too much of a good thing, and while the varied song lengths serve to break up the pace somewhat—some melodic ideas clock in at just over a minute—the result is an album that might be better digested as two separate releases.
It’s not that there is really any chaff to separate from the wheat here, but at over 75 minutes the album just runs out of steam midway through. And sequencing doesn’t seem to be at fault either; I’ve started the album midway through and have been just as pleased with the second half as the first. But when the disc begins again at track 1, I find myself thumbing through CDs, looking for something new. The material here, being devoid of much in the way of a heady thematic concept or innovative song structure, just doesn’t seem to support an extended listening experience the way an OK Computer or Illinois might.
It might be the tragic nature of a lengthy pop album, or it might be a sign that I’m finally succumbing to ADD, but Never Hear the End of It is just too long for its own good, even if it does have some of the best, most infectious rock moments this side of The Beatles. You just might need to take a break midstream to really appreciate its impact.
MP3:
Fading Into Obscurity
Someone I Can Be True With