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Parallel Play

by

Sloan

 
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Parallel Play
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Avg: 4.0 (105 ratings)

The most dependable power-poppers on the planet get democratic.

  • We Say...

    Review by Barry Walters

    Named after a developmental psychology term for when preschoolers play side-by-side without interaction, Parallel Play links together the independent compositions of Sloan’s four members, every one of them a singer-songwriter. It’s what the Beatles and the Monkees did for their most varied albums, but these Canadians push their democratic methods to extremes: Each contributes three songs, except for Andrew Scott, who turns in four. He, the drummer, is perversely the one who plays everything on his tracks.

    This equality wouldn’t matter if Sloan hadn’t remained one of the '90s greatest under-appreciated bands. Although their second album, 1994’s anti-grunge Twice Removed, has been twice voted the greatest Canadian album ever, Parallel Play proves Sloan didn’t peak prematurely: Like 2006’s 30-cut Never Hear the End of It, Play splices tracks together into nonstop suites, akin to the second half of the Beatles’ Abbey Road. But unlike its fragmented and introspective predecessor, the foursome’s latest features fully-developed and mostly uptempo songs that consistently play to the band’s strengths — muscle paired with melody, hooks laden with harmony — that gives their immediacy depth.

    As usual, the guy with the Beach Boy tenor, rhythm guitarist Jay Ferguson, handles the summery pop: With its introductory plinking pianos and bubbly “ba-ba-da”s, “Cheap Champaign” brings the effervescence its title suggests. His Sloan siblings don't exactly slack in the catchiness department: Lead guitarist Patrick Pentland kicks thing off with the stomping blare of “Believe in Me,” while Scott’s punky, handclap-laden “Emergency 911” rages like one of Nick Lowe’s early Stiff singles. In his strummy “All I Am Is All You’re Not,” bassist Chris Murphy wryly declares “What I lack in pizzaz I make up in charm.” That’s Sloan in summary — not the flashiest power-poppers on the planet, but certainly the most dependable.

  • They Say...

    Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

    At 13 songs and 37 minutes, Parallel Play feels as if it were designed as a counterpoint to its 2006 predecessor, Never Hear the End of It, an efficient machine next to the sprawling canvas of that hourlong 30-song neo-masterpiece. That it is, but Parallel Play isn't quite an abandonment of the White Album aesthetics of Never Hear, where all four members of Sloan played off their individual personalities to create a larger tapestry. Rather, Parallel Play condenses all that winding exploration into a tight, colorful blast of sound and song -- and one that is seamlessly sequenced just like its big brawny cousin. The slimmed-down streamlined structure winds up emphasizing the harder-rocking inclinations of Patrick Pentland and Andrew Scott, especially as the first half of the album relies heavily on their furious "Believe in Me" and "Emergency 911." Jay Ferguson's sweet and delicate tunes function as a counterbalance to this and the psychedelicized sludge of Pentland's "The Other Side," as Ferguson has an infectious light touch on "Cheap Champagne" and "Witch's Wand," which is far sunnier than its title implies. Chris Murphy's tunes act as a bridge between these two camps, as they're alternately as delicate as "Living the Dream" and as tough and cynical as "I'm Not a Kid Anymore," a reckoning of rocking in adulthood that has a counterpart in Scott's "Down in the Basement" (its freewheeling Dylan and the Band ramble being a nice musical joke to the song's title). Murphy and Scott address directly the issue that Sloan faced as a band and found a solution to: what it means to be a rock and pop band as you're starting to stare down middle age. It's a question many other bands have faced, but Sloan have solved their problem by giving each member room to roam, and they're winding up with records that are rich emotionally and musically, illustrating that it is possible for a classicist guitar pop band like Sloan to grow with each passing year.

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