vintage

While Sloan’s latest effort Parallel Play didn’t make it to my top 10 for this year, there’s still a lot of good material on it that is certainly among the better work released in ‘08. One of these such songs is Andrew Scott’s “Down in the Basement,” a Bob Dylan throwback with loads of piano and guitars and a rambling sound only Scott could really capture accurately.

The album is incredibly well produced, which only makes this song better; Scott contributes a great groove and a remarkable imitation of Dylan’s vocal style (the breaks at Forty tracks, forty mics, turn up the heaters and fire up the floodlights are a good time to sing along with, too!). The whole song is essentially autobiographical, Scott talking about his family and detailing how the band recorded their last few albums at their rehearsal space (We can do what we want and it’s on our own dime). It’s a pretty uncharacteristic tune from Sloan, but in a great way.

Tunesday 5: Down in the Basement