Sloan: Based On The Best Seller (light blue vinyl)

Why you'll love it

The Canadian pressing on translucent light blue vinyl, in a tip-on sleeve with a four-page lyrics booklet. It is the fourteenth album from Halifax's finest, made at home in Toronto with all four members still writing and singing their own songs.

This edition

Translucent light blue vinyl
Tip-on sleeve
Four-page lyrics booklet
Murderecords pressing (cat# MUR 081-LP)

About the album

Sloan have done something almost no band manages: kept the same four members for more than thirty years, with Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott each writing and singing their own songs. That four-songwriter setup is what keeps their records surprising, and Based on the Best Seller is a good example. It was recorded at The Bunker and Taurus Studio in Toronto, with a bit extra done in Murphy's garage, and it has the easy, lived-in sound of a band who know exactly what they are good at.

"Live Forever" and "Dream Destroyer" have the bright power-pop hooks Sloan built their name on, "Capitol Cooler" opens with a grin, and "Collect Yourself" and "I Already Know" show the gentler, more Beatles-ish side. Every member gets his turn at the mic, which is half the fun. Thirty-odd years in, they are still writing better choruses than bands half their age, and they seem to be enjoying it more than ever. Proof, if anyone needed it, that the best things about Halifax are portable.