It may be hard to believe in these days of Arcade Fires, Broken Social Scenes, New Pornographers, Constantines, Black Mountains, and, yes, Avrils, but in the mid-1990s, being Canadian and not named Alanis or Shania was enough to get you dropped from your label. Playing quintessential power-pop while signed to grunge-oriented major Geffen didn't help. At any rate, Sloan's lack of U.S. commercial success in the 1990s represents the nadir of U.S.-Canuck relations between "54 40 or Fight!" and that government official calling Dubya a "moron" in 2002-- yeah, I'm including "Informer".
A Sides Win captures most of the high points along this Halifax, Nova Scotia-based quartet's career arc and adds two adequate new songs, all in the blessedly sensible chronological order too many singles comps eschew. Representing 1993 debut Smeared, the ambitiously geeky "Underwhelmed" and dreamy "500 Up" open the record, distending the band's typical hook-filled melodies with swirling guitars that hint at both Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. 1994 follow-up Twice Removed yields the concentrated melodic O.J. of "Coax Me"-- "it's not the band I hate, it's their fans!"-- and dull post-shoegaze "People of the Sky". This is where Sloan began to carve out their niche as a power-pop band, and also where their chances for American stardom were squandered amid Geffen's lack of marketing support.
Sloan's crowning achievement remains 1996's gloriously catchy One Chord to Another, which fulfilled its predecessor's promise with punchy tunes indebted to Graham Nash-era Hollies and, of course, that Fabbest of Fours. Unsurprisingly, tracks from that album are A Sides Win's peak. "The Lines You Amend" jangles like "The Ballad of John & Yoko" while name-dropping Ringo. "Everything You've Done Wrong" skips along to handclaps and trumpets far sunnier than its title. "The Good in Everyone" concisely summarizes Sloan's style, anchoring sunny British Invasion harmonies in crunchy power chords.
While most of the tracks taken from Sloan's subsequent four studio albums reflect the band's descent into clunky riff-rock that owes as much to AC/DC and KISS as to power-pop icons like Big Star or Zumpano, Pretty Together's "The Other Man" is a glistening alt-rocker supposedly inspired by bassist Chris Murphy's inserting himself (ahem) between Broken Social Scene's Andrew Whiteman and Canadian songstress Feist. O indie Canada!
Sloan are a better singles band than an albums band, so A Sides Win all but atones for their sometimes underwhelming (ha!) latter-day failings. Even 2003's Action Pact sounds brilliant when its sole inclusion is jaunty, contemplative "The Rest of My Life". The two new songs don't exactly hint at a renaissance, but at least they show a band still rummaging for new classic rock inspiration-- the Cars-like palm-muting and synths of "Try to Make It", the can't-drive-just-55 riff-churner "All Used Up". All that said, listeners just discovering Sloan would still be better off buying One Chord to Another.
