She’s A 20th Century Fox

Sloan “Cleopatra”

Sloan’s new album Commonwealth splits into four sides, one for each songwriter in the band. You can look at it like four miniature solo albums released under the Sloan banner, or as a typical Sloan album sequenced so their songs don’t really mingle together. It’s a little of both, probably. The four sides do sound like distinct projects, and some members take advantage of this opportunity better than others. Andrew Scott went all the way with it and wrote one big side-long epic, which definitely makes him the most ambitious member of the group. On the other end of the spectrum, Chris Murphy turned in a handful of good songs that are pretty much business-as-usual for him, and Patrick Pentland is just kinda on autopilot doing his bubblegum riff-rock thing. Jay Ferguson is the one who really shines on Commonwealth. His side, which opens the record, is an elegant pop suite in which he weaves some top-shelf melodies together until it all pays off in a harmony full of callbacks in “Cleopatra.” It’s very inspired stuff, and his is the only side of this I actually wish could be expanded into a full length record. Otherwise, I think Commonwealth is a pretty strong argument in favor of the Sloan guys being a lot better together than apart, and for their songs to play off each other rather than stand alone.

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