Sloan...or SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAN. Remember them?"How many Sloan songs do you love? You may be surprised at how many Sloan songs you know and love..." http://www.vikrecordings.com/sloan/asides/As I started to type the title to this post, I remembered (out of nowhere) something about some girl named Sloan Far(r) whom I had never met, but heard lots and lots about from Flynn and Joseph. But really, when I started, I wanted to think about the band Sloan for a minute -- where had they gone in my musical memory? There was a time not too long ago (college) when I would listen to them off and on, and definitely play them on the radio a bunch. But what had happened? Why had they suddenly been omitted from my musical horizon? When had I stopped listening to "Marquee and the Moon" on Doug's masterful mixtape? (Answer: Never. I guess I didn't register the song as being by Sloan, however.) This swell of musings is prompted, of course, by their new release of hits:
A sides Win: Singles 1992-2005. The gem that brought me back was one that wasn't deemed as great by the reviewer -- "She Says What She Means," which was originally off of
Navy Blues (1998). Holy shit, this is a hot track! I cued it up briefly and thought it would fit in with my show...but when it came on, all the memories came rushing back of playing it at Colgate on the air. "It's like you don't even know me!" the singer croons, "Haven't you heard! That sort of thing is below me!" etc. Somewhere, submerged in my musical subconscious was this beauty of a song that I'd forgotten, and thanks to the rotation at the station and the handy
A Sides Win collection, I could reclaim that musical memory as my own. That afternoon, I marched down to my favorite record shop and snagged a used copy. As it turns out, the whole album is brilliant!!!! Brilliant I tell you! I HEART SLOAN! It's great road music, if you happen to like driving around aimlessly in the country. I managed to go from Nashville to Franklin to almost Columbia, TN on a whim with Sloan blaring from the speakers. Go listen to the song online, and you'll know why.
