It’s unlikely that you’ve heard of Sloan if you live outside of Canada, but they’ve been plugging away in their musical niche for 30 years.
In some ways, they were the prototype for Canadian indie rock bands of the 1990s: huge underground following, quirky songwriting, a mysterious inability to break through in the US, and a look that falls somewhere between “grunge deity” and “IT specialist.”
The record that many Sloan fans contend is their strongest is their 1996 effort, One Chord to Another. In retrospect, it might have been the record that confirmed what they were going to be: it was their first album on their own label (having left American giant Geffen Records) and it garnered their first Juno Award (the Canadian Grammys).
Before One Chord to Another, the band was on the verge of breaking up. The album’s success locked them in for decades of productive work together.
It also, in my opinion, is the record that nailed down their formula: each of their albums seems to include one track destined to be a rock anthem played at every Maple Leafs home game, followed by a series of gentle, thoughtful, clever, Beatles-quoting numbers.
“Junior Panthers” has always been one of my favourite non-rock-anthem Sloan songs.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. This was a record made on the cheap – about 8% of the previous record’s budget – and exhibit A is the piano here. They didn’t have one at the studio, so they brought a four-track tape to bassist Chris Murphy’s mother’s house. Lacking the, um, ability to play a piano, Murphy played the left hand and guitarist Jay Ferguson played the right hand. For a band that was about to break up, it was a nice bit of collaborative symbolism.
2. The “ooh” vocals that open each chorus highlight harmonies as one of the band’s strengths.
3. The ending always catches me by surprise. The song feels like it’s got another verse left in it, but then the chorus cuts short, and it ends on a major chord, at odds with the rest of the song. But economical songwriting is another one of the band’s strengths…and hey, if you don’t need another verse, you don’t need another verse.
Recommended listening activity:
Leaning in to your habits.