Sloan - Based on the Best Seller
Murderecords/Yep Roc
Released on September 26th, 2025
I’m approaching middle age. I’d like to think it’s happening gracefully, but I also want to believe that I’m not losing my edge. This statement is at once a total contradiction and a feeling that I imagine is pretty close to universal for most folks in their mid 40s. It’s also the best possible way to describe the latest record from Canadian power-pop stalwarts, Sloan. That two of the songs, “Baxter” and “Open Your Umbrellas” are both demos from their golden age given a new lease on life only adds to this feeling.
Based on the Best Seller is their 14th album in a career that spans well over 30 years. Put another way, Sloan has been making excellent music for as long as I’ve been paying attention in a deep and meaningful way. The scene they helped to build had a strong gravitational pull. They’re the reason that as a teen, I wanted to leave Edmonton to go to University in Halifax, one of many best laid plans that never came to fruition. I think a case could easily made that their four-album stretch from Twice Removed through Between the Bridges (5 if you count 4 nights at the Palais Royale) is the best that any Canadian band made in that time period. Those albums were the templates for almost every Sloan album to follow from their imperial phase into their long steady period as the preeminent Canadian Indie elder statesmen.
All four members, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott have such distinct voices, not just as singers but as songwriters. Their compositions are instantly recognizable, and Based on the Best Seller almost plays like a latter-day greatest hits album because of it. In a recent interview with Spill Magazine, Murphy spoke about not wanting to become a just a legacy act. “My joke is that someday, one day, people will look back and say, ‘Holy shit! These guys kept going, and then they did this and this.’”
Each songwriter’s unique approach is on display. Pentland’s “Dream Destroyer” is yet another excellent glam-inspired stomp along song, full of big fuzzy guitars and a hook that refused to leave my head. “No Damn Fears” is a perfect example of Scott’s idiosyncratic songwriting that always draws me in, perhaps more than any other member of the band. Can you still call someone a secret weapon after 14 albums? Ferguson’s voice remains as sweet as ever. All three of his contributions are late-career highlights, particularly “Congratulations”, an absolutely pitch-perfect slice of guitar pop. Murphy’s contributions are plentiful as always, singing lead on four tracks and with prominent backup vocals on another seven. Album closer “I Already Know” is a classic Murphy tune - a bouncy McCartney-esque bassline, gorgeous harmony vocals and lyrics that are much more cutting and cynical than the power-pop chord progression suggests. “Live Forever” is full of strange little chord modulations and changes, making the song much more musically complex than Murphy’s typical approach. “The '90s nostalgia that you feel is nothing compared to what's to come/If we're living for that long a time, can it be a good time/A welcome most outworn, the story never ending, yeah/Another day down, but so many to go.” He’s pushing himself out of his comfort zone even into his mid-50s.
Go see them, they’ll be in your town again sometime very soon. They’re aging gracefully and haven’t lost their edge.