Power-pop has long had a hold on me. I was an impressionable 6-year-old the year Badfinger's "No Matter What" stood out as the most perfect song I thought I would ever hear. The genre fueled the new wave movement and was everywhere on the radio during my high school years. In the '90s, I lived for the snarly hooks of the Dandy Warhols. And now Sloan has delivered the first power-pop epic for the 21st century, Never Hear the End of It.
Sloan has released eight albums over 15 years, but never like this. The Toronto quartet is known for collaborative songwriting. That doesn't mean each member adds a little here and a little there. It means they all independently write songs and bring a few of them along to the studio.
Maybe that's how Sloan manages to dish out 30 quality tracks on this effort. Ranging from one to five minutes, the songs are both remarkable in their own right and notable as a seamless 75-minute listen. The awesome first single, "Who Taught You to Live Like That," is even better with "Flying High Again" serving as its preamble.
Even before January ends, Sloan has nudged me to start my list of the best albums of 2007.
