Sloan returned with the nostalgic One Chord To Another (Murderecords, 1996), an endless parade of catchy refrains inspired by the Sixties.
The Good In Everyone apes the bubblegum era of
the Monkees but with an evil garage-rock edge,
and G Turns To D dives into a relentless rock'n'roll.
At the same time, Autobiography has the quietly solemn soulfulness
of John Lennon's ballads, while
Junion Panthers borrows the tinkling organ and ethereal harmonies of the
Beach Boys.
The beat and the vocals of Take The Bench are reminiscent of the
Turtles,
while the exuberant horn fanfare of Everything You've Done Wrong
evokes the soul groups of Tamla Motown.
The Lines You Amend displays a rootsy rhythm a` la
Creedence Clearwater Revival, while
Take the Bench boasts blues-rock riffs a` la Free.
The number of implicit quotations is overwhelming. The album is de facto
a tribute to the Sixties.
Therefore it didn't come as a complete surprise that
Navy Blues (Murderrecords, 1998 - Koch, 2005) became their best-seller.
However, the songs sounded a lot less brilliant and spontaneous.
C'mon C'mon,
Chester the Molester,
Supposed They Close the Door,
I Wanna Thank You (that apes the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby)
attempt the same affectionate revisitation of Sixties stereotypes that
succeeded on One Chord To Another but sound only derivative if not
aimless.
The more sophisticated arrangements do not benefit the mission.
The new element is represented by hard-rock detours that homage the
Stooges (Iggy and Angus),
AC/DC (Money City Maniacs)
and Kiss (She Says What She Means).
After the live 4 Nights At The Palais Royale (1999), Sloan released
Between The Bridges (Murderrecords, 1999), another cynical melodic
exploitation. However, the facile Losing California and The N.S.
are now little more than generic supermarket muzak.
The decline of Sloan continues with their worst album ever,
Pretty Together (Murderecords, 2001),
despite a couple of interesting songs
(If It Feels Good Do It, The Other Man).
Ditto for Action Pact (Vik, 2003 - Koch, 2004).
A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 (Koch, 2005) collects their singles.
When the band was considered all but finished, they returned with
the thirty-song pop behemoth Never Hear The End Of It (Yep Roc, 2006).
Because all four voices contributed to the songwriting, this eclectic collection
was hailed as their equivalent of the Beatles' White Album.
Luckily, little in the music harked back to the Beatles.
Some of the creations ranked in fact among their most intriguing intuitions
ever, starting with the surreal overture Flying High Again and the
slow pounding rockabilly of Who Taught You to Live Like That (one of the
peaks of their revivalist career).
Denser arrangements helped propel the
the distorted psychedelic rave-up of I've Gotta Try,
the cabarettish albeit loping Before the End of the Race,
the anthemic punk-rock of HFXNSHC,
the Rolling Stones-ian blues-rock of Ill Placed Trust,
the Cheap Trick-ian power-pop of Living with the Masses.
At the same time, the dreamy Listen to the Radio,
the John Lennon-ian ballad Fading into Obscurity,
the suave Byrds-ian harmonies of
I Know You
flow amid echoes of Merseybeat, folk-rock and surf music.
Many of the songs last less than two minutes, as if to signal that the band
is fully aware of not being original.
In fact the longer songs are often the least appealing
(like the overlong I Understand and
Live the Life You're Dreaming Of).
Removing the filler would have left a breezy and entertaining mini-album.
By contrast, Parallel Play (Yep Roc, 2008) was a brief, compact
collection but the material was generally inferior despite
Pentland's Believe in Me,
Ferguson's Witch's Wand,
Chris Murphy's Living the Dream
Andrew Scott's Emergency 911.
The Double Cross (Yep Roc, 2011) boasted the usual dose of middle-of-the-road power-pop, although only one leans towards the
Kinks-ian side of the equation
(Patrick Petland's Unkind), whereas most of the others are sub-Beatles
singalongs
(Jay Ferguson's The Answer was You,
Murphy's Your Daddy Will Do,
Ferguson's Beverly Terrace and
Chris Murphy's Follow The Leader). The album is brief, but it should
have been even briefer.