Now Don't You Start, Yeah Yeah

Before Navy Blues there was One Chord To Another.
(1996 CAN, 1997 USA)

This is the my favorite Sloan album, 40 minutes full of absolute and total pop brilliance, from the MC's introduction before "The Good In Everyone" through the finale of "400 Metres". The three tracks that made it to 2005's A Sides Win ("The Good In Everyone", "Everything You've Done Wrong", and"The Lines You Amend", though strangely not "A Sides Win") are barely the tip of the maritime iceberg. It's like a distillation of all the best parts from their first two albums, or a final step in the progression from Smeared through Twice Removed.

Everyone should own this record and listen to it regularly.

One Chord To Another came out in the US on The Enclave (the same label that issued Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister at around the same time) eight months after the Canadian release, but as a treat for patient fans south of the border, came with a special bonus disc, Recorded Live At A Sloan Party!. This nine song set included covers of songs by Jonathan Richman ("Dignified and Old"), the Everly Brothers ("Glitter and Gold"), Roxy Music ("Over You"), the Hollies("I Can't Let Go"), Stereolab("Transona Five" in an unlikely medley with Canned Heat's "On The Road Again") and fellow Canadians April Wine ("Wouldn't Want To Lose Your Love") and Matthew Grimson("Stood Up"), and well as their own "I Can Feel It". The title is an obvious nod to the 1965 Beach Boys Party! LP, which was also recorded in the studio with overdubbed "party" sounds added after the fact.

Sloan - The Good In Everyone (mp3 from indieblogheaven).