April 28 – Sloan Sailed Navy Blues Up The Charts

A little less Beatles, a little more AC/DC? Sloan released their highest-charting album on this day in 1998, Navy Blues. It hit #5  in their native Canada and illustrated the dangers of pigeon-holing music. When their debut single came out six years earlier, “Underwhelmed“,  Geffen loved it, helped it become a hit on American alt rock charts…and quickly decided Sloan were the next slacker-heroes, the Nirvana of the North. Unfortunately, Sloan was more of a pop band, with more in common with say, early REM or the Gin Blossoms, and the label quickly tired of their perky releases which typically did well at home but got no push in the U.S. Their 1994 album Twice Removed was called the “best album you didn’t hear” in 1994 by Spin and was voted the Best Canadian album ever by one Canadian magazine. The third one, One Chord To Another, with the hits “The Good In Everyone” and “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” – their first two Canadian top 10 singles –  garnered excellent reviews and comparisons to Beatlesque bands like Crowded House, World Party and Squeeze. For this one though, they toughened up their sound, which took some fans by surprise but was still well-received.  Pitchfork rated it 6.5 out of 10, and allmusic gave it 4-stars. They felt it “might just be the band’s best yet” even though they were “moving away from the ornately Beatlesque production” to a more “down and dirty” sound. They opined “there isn’t a weak track here, but ‘C’mon C’mon‘, ‘Keep On Thinkin’ (and) ‘Chester the Molester'” were “undeniably catchy.” The single that sold the record though was “Money City Maniacs”, their third top 10 single, a staple on Canadian rock radio and used in TV ads for several years. Overall, the album went to #5 and was their fourth straight to go gold domestically.

However, even though they’ve been at it ever since, putting out nine more albums (the latest, 2022’s Steady) sales haven’t stayed up and they’ve not had major radio play from them nor had that big breakthrough into the American market. Mind you, they aren’t entirely unknown south of the border – they’ve opened for the Foo Fighters and recorded with Rivers Cuomo of Weezer.