pretty comfortable

I figure I'd write a little bit on my impressions of Sloan's new CD. Ever since Navy Blues, they've been steadily cranking out albums every two years. They've changed their sound a lot since their early days, in fact I'd say the turning point was the excellent One Chord to Another. I'm not selling their CDs or anything. If you haven't heard anything by these guys, but do enjoy such works by the bands The Ataris, Good Charlotte, or Dashboard Confessional, I'd recommend getting the fuck off this website. If you're still here, I ask you, why do you have such fickle tastes in music? Go and check out Sloan. One thing I can say with certainty is that Sloan has remained true to their fans and their music over the years with a sound that won't go out of style as quick as your power-pop-punk-asscaptain band du jour. Now on to the album.

Starting at the cover, Action Pact as it's so cleverly named takes some visual cues from the aforementioned One Chord to Another. But I won't hold it against them. All of the tracks on the record are well produced, listenable, and provide a few riffs that I continue to hum to myself. However the overall quality of each song, if it can be measured, is not what I have come to expect from these guys. Or maybe I did expect it, since their previous studio album was a bit lackluster and appeared to mark a plateau in their career. The album creation process for them had turned into a formula: Chris sings a song, Patrick sings some songs, Andrew sings, and then Jay gets sensitive (and sings a song). On the first listen of this latest record I found I could predict who would be singing judging by the opening riff. Scary! Nevertheless, I find myself rocking out to most of the songs on Action Pact. Specifically: "Gimme That", "Live On", "Backstabbin'", "Hollow Head", "I Was Wrong", "Reach Out"...Wait a second. That's like half the album. So it's pretty fucking good then. They may say "yeah" a lot, but damn these guys have that harmonizing and catchy guitar riff thing down to a science (which is not really a good thing, most times).

Songs like "The rest of my Life" and "Fade Away" kind of hint at an introspective Sloan, a band that is reaching a point in their career where they are comfortable in their success and all too happy to be creating music until they feel it is time to stop. I can appreciate that, but I think that their contentment is reflected in the songwriting. I mean to be honest the chord progression and tempo of these songs are nothing new to them; they've been doing it since Navy Blues. They need to branch out, maybe try something new. I'd be curious to see if they could pull off an acoustic album, maybe go a little folk. But none of that Emo or Great Big Sea shit. Jay's got the sensitive streak in him, I'm sure they could pull something off.

Sloan is one of my favorite bands ever, and are one of the few acts that have really made a name for themselves in the Canadian scene and actually deserved it. I'd recommend this record to any fan of the group. To the casual listener, you can take a chance, but don't expect anything new from them. For a great introduction to Sloan, pick up Twice Removed and One Chord to Another.

Another slice of info I should pass along is this flyer of sorts that kind of jumped up and bit me as I opened the jewelcase for the CD. It's definitely a sign of the times when you receive a Thank-You note for buying a CD. One thing is for sure, the folks at KeepMusicComing.com have an excellent ambush advertising campaign. The website is a good collection of information, but all those statistics and opinions that they've collected about people who download music versus buying it need to be put to good use. We're still paying $20 for new CDs.