Sloan: Between The Bridges : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Sloan continue to insist that guitar-based, harmony-rich power pop still bursts with possibility - and, judging by their fifth studio album, they may be right. Between the Bridges is slightly less busy than its digression-packed predecessor, 1998's Navy Blues, but Bridges may actually be more ambitious; the songs meld one into the next, loosely telling the story of a certain Canadian band's rise to obscurity. It's an in joke wrapped in Union Jack colors, a minihistory of the quartet's role as Brit-pop tour guides: the Paul Weller-like soul plaintiveness of "Don't You Believe a Word"; the Beatles-by-way-of-Andy Partridge dreaminess of "The N.S."; the Who-worthy meltdown of "Sensory Deprivation"; the Smiths jangle of "Waiting for Slow Songs"; the Move rumble of "Losing California." If nothing else, Between the Bridges should do wonders for Sloan's status as the best band ever to come out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (RS 832)

GREG KOT