Sloan 'Never Hear the End' album

Sloan's eighth studio album, Never Hear the End of It -- its first on new US label Yep Roc Records -- not only delivers another serving of august and finely crafted rock, it's also thirty tracks long. You heard me. Thirty.

"Call it an extremist's reaction to a singles culture," says Jay Ferguson. "It's definitely a bit of a sprawling record, but I think that if any band can attempt to pull it off, it might as well be us."

One of the most successful Canadian bands of the last fifteen years, Sloan formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1991 with Andrew Scott (drums, vocals), Patrick Pentland (guitar, vocals), Chris Murphy (bass, vocals), and Jay Ferguson (guitar, vocals). By 1992, they self-released their first EP, Peppermint, and within a year had signed to DGC and released their full length, critically lauded debut, Smeared. Their next album, Twice Removed, brought even more critical acclaim (including citation as "The Best Canadian Album of All Time" by Chart Magazine), accolades they confirmed with the subsequent successes of One Chord to Another (1997), Navy Blues (1998), Between the Bridges (1999), Pretty Together (2001), and Action Pact (2003). And throughout such output, Sloan has managed to share songwriting duties between all members and never have a change in line-up.

"No one can be replaced in Sloan," Patrick Pentland says. "We're a band of four characters that together make sense."

"We are four individual singers/songwriters," Ferguson continues, "And the sheer volume and diversity of the material [on Never Hear the End of It], I feel, makes for an entertaining listen. You don't get stuck in one sound for very long, yet we're always pleasantly surprised that the whole thing still hangs together cohesively."

To simply imply that the new record hangs together "cohesively" would be a major understatement. From pop masterpieces like "Who Taught You to Live Like That" (which clocked the highest number of first week downloads in iTunes history upon its Canadian release), to Pentland's "Listen to the Radio," this album could, for any other band, be close to three perfect records.

"The mindset of a twelve song disc for the sake of mechanical royalties wasn't appealing to us," states Chris Murphy. "We're all songwriters, which isn't generally the case with a rock band. It's been restrictive in the past because it meant that putting out a record every two to three years meant only including 3-4 songs each. We each have a lot to say and this time around we felt the freedom to include what felt right for each of us."

Self-recorded at Sloan's own studio and self-produced, Never Hear the End of Itis at once expansive and familiar. "With each of us basically producing our own songs, the record takes on a shape and sound of its own almost subconsciously," Pentland says. "It doesn't sound like four solo artists, it sounds like Sloan."

And sounding like Sloan is very good thing. There is a reason these guys have remained meaningful, vibrant, and continually touring (most recently even playing a handful of shows with the likes of a small band called The Rolling Stones).

> "Records like Never Hear the End of It keep us valid," Pentland says. "We've been around a long time and we continue to make a contribution to music. We wouldn't keep doing this if we didn't think we were making interesting new records and staying relevant. What other bands are on their eighth record together and still in their original formation and still making sense to fans?"

ay Ferguson -- guitar / vocals
Chris Murphy -- bass / vocals
Patrick Pentland -- guitar / vocals
Andrew Scott -- drums / vocals

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Sloan - Never Hear the End