Performer Notes

Initial pressings included a bonus CD.
Sloan: Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Andrew Scott.
Additional personnel: Mike Cowie (trumpet); Brenndan McGuire (bass).
Includes liner notes by Chico T. Sanchez.
Sloan fans worried about how their boys would fare after being dumped by Geffen despite releasing two classic early-1990s power-pop albums. This independently distributed '96 recording proves that the band not only recovered but bounced higher. ("Nothing Left to Make Me Want to Stay" may as easily have been addresssed to their erstwhile label as to a lover.) Rough-and-tumble arrangements invited Stones comparisons along with the usual Beatles/Kinks associations, and the sparkling melodies and vocal harmonies are among the band's best.

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (3/6/97, p.72) - 3.5 Stars (out of 5) - "...sounds like swinging-'60s Britain transposed to a '90s Canadian garage....mashed-down guitars, the out-of-tune pianos, the drum sound that might have been sampled from `Louie, Louie'....a batch of really special, quirky, melodic songs..."

Entertainment Weekly (7/11/97, p.69) - "These four Nova Scotians are unabashed pop nerds whose fondness for winsome harmonies and hooky riffs doesn't stop them from adding songs to a song if they feel like it..."

- Rating: B+

Option (1-2/97, p.104) - "...Like a less blatant version of the Pooh Sticks...every original song suggests a vague, long-buried chestnut by the Raspberries, or the Beatles, even....sets a tone of pop euphoria they easily sustain for 40 minutes..."