Sloan - Smeared

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1992
Time: 46:30
Size: 106,7 MB
Label: Geffen
Styles: Alt.Rock
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Underwhelmed - 4:43
 2. Raspberry - 4:01
 3. I Am The Cancer - 3:41
 4. Median Strip - 3:35
 5. Take It In - 3:58
 6. 500 Up - 4:19
 7. Marcus Said - 4:31
 8. Sugartune - 3:32
 9. Left Of Centre - 2:31
10. Lemonzinger - 4:11
11. Two Seater - 3:03
12. What's There To Decide? - 4:20

Musicians:
Jay Ferguson - Guitars, Vocals;
Patrick Pentland - Guitars, Vocals, Bass;
Chris Murphy - Bass, Vocals;
Andrew Scott -  Drums, Vocals, Guitar.
Feat.:
Jennifer Pierce - Additional Vocals

Sloan began life with Peppermint, an indie-produced (oh does it sound it!) power pop album. Three of its songs were cleaned up, re-recorded, and included on this major label debut. 'Marcus Said' ("...or at least he might have said" as the song cheekily intones) chugs along lazily, with an ethereal vocal track. Its scratchy guitars can sometimes be jarring, but it rocks nonetheless. 'Sugartune' is aptly named. Sticky sweet, it's built around a simple power-chord riff. "I wrote for you this sugartune to help you through what you've gotta do," it states simply enough. A pop song with desires to better the world -- a noble concept. But the killer carryover from Peppermint is the lead track, 'Underwhelmed'. It opens with ominous end-of-the-world guitar feedback and a melodic killer hook: "She was underwhelmed if that's a word/I know it's not cause I looked it up/that's one of those skills I learned in my school". Once the drums kick in, the song's narrator is correcting his girl's grammar, dodging her dirty looks, and realizing that she's a heartless bitch. And that's all before the first chorus! It's the classic boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl/boy-misses-the-point pop song. And as always Chris Murphy (bass/vox) has such fun with his lyrics. You've got to love a song where the narrator, upon reading an autobiographical story about his girl's life, only says, "affection has two F's, especially when you're dealing with me". And the love interest rolls her eyes in the first verse, and rolls her R's in the last. This is still my fave Sloan song.
The rest of the album fails to measure up, though. There are some good moments, such as 'I Am The Cancer', 'Take It In' (which does Nirvana proud with it's soft verse/loud chorus structure), and '500 Up' (which features a nifty little bass breakdown). But the remainder of the disc relies too heavily on guitar distortion rather than melody. Sloan would later realize that all four members are exquisite songwriters, and they didn't have to rely as heavily on the fine work of Mr. Murphy. Thus, the later albums are jam-packed with great tunes. Here, the latter half of the album is filler. Doesn't matter, though. 'Underwhelmed' is worth the price of admission on its own.

Smeared