Sloan Announce 'Commonwealth' Double Album, Share New Track

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jul 14, 2014

Over the last couple of years, Sloan have discussed their plans for a new double album containing four solo sides (one for each band member) while also digging into their archives for reissues, live releases and punk experiments. Now, they've finally announced that aforementioned double LP.

Commonwealth will be out on September 9 through Yep Roc. The album cover, which portrays the band members as four-of-a-kind kings, is above. The suits of these playing cards correspond to the titles of their solo sides: Jay Ferguson's side is called Diamond, Chris Murphy's is Heart, Patrick Pentland's is Shamrock, and Andrew Scott's Spade. (This Spade side consists of a single 18-minute suite called "Forty-Eight Portraits.")

A press release promises, "Ultimately, what makes Commonwealth so special — and so distinctly Sloan — is how the fragmented approach in fact only serves to underscore the veteran band's extraordinary strengths, showcasing the particular ingredients without ever losing sight of the sum of their parts."

At the bottom of this page, listen to the premiere of the glammy, boogie-fuelled single "Keep Swinging (Downtown)." It's sung by Pentland. You can also pre-order the album here and snag the track as a free download.  

This is the follow-up to 2011's The Double Cross

Commonwealth:

Diamond (Ferguson):

1. We've Come This Far
2. You've Got a Lot on Your Mind
3. Three Sisters
4. Cleopatra
5. Neither Here Nor There

Heart (Murphy):

6. Carried Away
7. So Far So Good
8. Get Out
9. Misty's Beside Herself
10. You Don't Need Excuses to Be Good

Shamrock (Pentland):

11. 13 (Under a Bad Sign)
12. Take It Easy
13. What's Inspire
14. Keep Swinging (Downtown)

Spade (Scott):

15. Forty-Eight Portraits

 

Latest Coverage