Sloan: Never Hear the End of It (Red Ink/Murder Records)

It’s 2006. Canada’s, and possibly the world’s, greatest power pop band has been left with a sort of challenge in front it. Though they’d shown an undeniable knack for pop perfection that made them stars at home and a revered cult delicacy abroad, the four-headed songwriting colossus of Halifax, Nova Scotia had hit a wall after a decade smeared with pretty togetherness. For their seventh album, 2003’s Action Pact, the band turned to notable producer Tom Rothrock, who chartered career highwater outings for Beck and Elliott Smith. Highwater was not so much his case with Sloan however, as Rothrock steered them into base arena rock and undid their great quirks for an obvious star-making stab. (That same year, Australia’s Jet made the same sort of record as their debut, only a lot better.) There was no denying it: Action Pact was a failure on all accounts. It was an uneven, unsatisfying record that didn’t crack them to a bigger audience. So, Sloan cleansed the palate with last year’s singles collection reminding us all how goodthey can be, and the challenge was to wow us again with an album of new songs. The exclamatory word here is “”wow.” Not only has Sloan reared its sharp and shiny teeth again but they’ve done it with a record of no less than 30 songs that manages to clock in at a relatively lean 76 minutes. This self-produced (with Nick Detoro) affair brings the band back to a space where their ability to come together for pure, straight-ahead rock and roll and also indulge in individual meanderings toward the offbeat are true strengths. The result is a seamless record where songs effortlessly flow in and out of one another. “Who Taught You How To Live Like That?” is a perfect Sloan single, laden in laidback hook-heaviness. The Big Star by way of Wings song suite “Fading Into Obscurity” meditates on crumbling relationships, which is a theme spread across Never Hear. Sloan’s patented band of exuberant, fist-pumping riffery is found throughout, especially on numbers like “Living With the Masses” and ”Ill Placed Trust”. Texturally, this is the band’s finest album as they broadly brush together elements of classic rock, Beatleisms, AM radio pop and art rock, for a cohesive and thoroughly enjoyable whole. Hell, there’s even the Minor Threat-like muscle of the aptly titled “HFXNSHC” (Halifax, Nova Scotia hardcore) bruising in.