SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-Commonwealth [Spade Side–Andrew Scott] (2014).
For Sloan’s 11th album, the four members of the band each wrote the songs of a side. I originally thought that they recorded all of the music alone, but that seems to be wrong–and would hardly be a Sloan album). In conjunction with the album, each guy was given a suit of cards (and an actual deck was made as well). While this doesn’t necessarily mean the album is very different from their others (it still sounds very Sloan), it seems to have given the guys a bit more room to experiment.
The final side of Commonwealth is by drummer Andrew Scott. Scott has written three singles for Sloan over the years: “500 Up”, “People of the Sky”, and “I’ve Gotta Try.” But for this album, he has created a 17 minute and 49 second epic called “Forty-Eight Portraits.” This makes it seem like it could be 48 small songs which it isn’t. But it also isn’t one long song exactly. There are, by my count 15 sections–although there could be more or fewer depending on how you break it up.
So my demarcations:
- The song opens with a dog barking. There’s complex percussion and a smattering of piano seemingly searching for a melody.
- At 3 minutes the first real song proper starts. We’ll call it “You say you’re going with me.” There’s acoustic guitars and a bouncy melody. It’s a great song with a neat guitar riff that overlays around 4 minutes in. But
- At 4:23 the song changes dramatically. It grinds to a slow pensive section, call it the “Don’t ask for a second chance.” But it doesn’t last long,
- At 5:16, the next part jumps in, it’s a bit faster and feels like it could be an extension of the previous section. Call it the “Do the things I do” section. It speeds up
- At 5:41, to a similar style as the “first song.” It has a sing along starting “How Does It Feel?” It’s got one verse before a time signature change and instrumental break.
- At 6:40 the next section comes in. Aggressive guitars and spoken word lyrics “There’s something happening here.” It also has one of the few uses of the word “fucking” in a Sloan song.
- At 7:25 it shifts to a falsetto style and higher pitched guitars. It’s vaguely Beach Boys-like for a verse “Do you think she loves you?” until
- At 7:48 it’s back to a reprise of the “How does it feel” section.
- At 8:15 it shifts to a new slow piano section. This feels like the most fully realized song section of the epic. “I can’t believe you never told me the truth.” It leads into a big chorus sounding section (two lines) around 8:40 (“What it is us unsustainable”). There’s even a repeat of this “verse” and “chorus” as well.
- At 10:26 a new guitar section is introduced. It works as a transition “You said you’re coming with me.” It morphs
- At 10:52 into a very cool slowed down section “I asked for a proper glass.” And then
- At 11:22 the song again returns to the “How did it feel” section.
- At 12 minutes the song transitions with a “ba ba ba” and horns which move into the “Sometimes I feel like I’m slipping away” section. The song feels like it might end at 13 minutes as the last notes seem to ring out. But
- At 13:21, the song rebuilds again with the “inside a cloud” section. This feels like the final section of the song is built around a similar construct. It’s a guitar riff that introduces a children’s chorus at around the 14 minute mark. There’s a slow guitar solo and pizzicato strings that keep this section from being to easy, but that guitar riff and children’s section reunite the end which concludes with the spoken “W.W.L.R.D.?” (which I assume the L.R. refers to Lou Reed).
- At 16 minutes, the chaos of the beginning returns with a dog bark, but the concluding riff is strong and seems to really draw out the end.
I really haven’t listened to the lyrics that carefully to know exactly what’s going on, but I really enjoy the “choruses.” While a 17 minute song is not everyone’s cup of tea, there are so many parts and so many interesting and catchy sections, that it feels like a whole collection of short songs rather than one long song. It’s a cool experiment and one that I find myself singling out as I try to parse it a bit more.
[READ: October 11, 2014] “Part of the Main” and “Watching the Cop Show in Bed”
The Walrus’ summer reading issue presents three stories and two poems in which: “The Walrus presents fresh takes on old crimes.” Each story is about a crime of some kind, but seemed from an unexpected way. I rather enjoyed the way the writers played around with the crime genre to make them something very different. These were two poems.
I’ve don’t normally review the poetry in The Walrus, but since I had four sides and only three stories it seemed worthwhile to throw the two poems in as well 9especially since the finally song was so unusual).
The first one “Part of the Main” is written with wonderfully evocative language as it talks about something so base.
The first stanza talks about the inevitability of the tide, of life. With beautiful language like: “the contours of the and effaced by the saintly patience of the tide.” But the second stanza shifts gears. In it, the narrator says that you can show him dire things on the television: “bloated bellies…bomb blasts” and he will weep and clench his fists “but otherwise do nothing.” It is sadly an uncomfortably relatable attitude. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 