Songtown - Vol. 3 (Rest Of My Life)

Artist - Sloan
Song - Rest Of My Life
Album - Action Pact
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My first Sloan album was Navy Blues, and since that purchase, my life has been a better place. I quickly went back into their catalog and picked everything up, becoming a so-called fanatic. As with all of the great bands that employ three or four great songwriters, it takes me forever to figure out who is who. Not because they don't all have very distinct voices, but for some reason I go after the melodies and song structures first and then once I return to the vocalists, I'm thoroughly miffed. I remember struggling as a young teen to tell the difference between Lennon and McCartney, and especially Lennon and Harrison. Now, it all seems so obvious, but back then, I really had to do some research.

And so the story goes for Sloan. What did Chris Murphy sound like? Patrick Pentland? Jay Ferguson? It wasn't until I saw my first Sloan concert, that I finally began to figure it out. And you're telling me that Andrew Scott, the drummer, even sings a few songs? This is getting too out of hand.

Well, I worked it out. I'm still unsure as to how to describe Andrew's voice. Patrick is the token acquired taste. Jay is the one with the high range. And Chris, as it goes with Chrises, is the one that sings all of the really clever stuff.

Which brings us to Rest Of My Life. This Chris Murphy has a way of writing songs about anything as if he was the first ever to write about it. Granted, in a lot of cases (which I'm sure will be the topic of future blogs), he is actually the first to write about it, or at least the first in a long, long time.

So, here's this song. This isn't the cleverest of his songs, I know, so I shouldn't have promised "clever." There are plenty of songs written by twenty/thirty-somethings wondering whether they're finally gonna grow up and settle down or if they're destined to be bip-bopping well into the rest of their life. But this one is so good, that I can't think of any other songs about it. So, for all intensive purposes, this is the only one. And why shouldn't it be?

One thing I know about the rest of my life,
I know that I'll be living it in Canada

This other Chris' references to his home country and provinces rivals only my propensity to name check Baltimore in at least every third song. So obviously, I'm going to be a sucker for lyrics like that.

But that's only part of a verse. The verse is solid. It's not mind-blowing, but it clues you into the fact that something special is about to happen. And that something's name is the CHORUS.

There are two verses and and an early bridge that eventually warps itself into the middle of future choruses. But really, this song is just the chorus over and over.

Am I gonna settle down?
Am I gonna be
Someone who has to take the rest of my life to settle down?
Then I guess you caught me lying to myself

So, there's a common theme developing in this Songtown feature, which I'll try to be conscience to avoid returning to everyday, but...does this song need any more lyrics? No f'n way, man. The lyrics are perfect and the fact that each and every chorus is slightly different is totally awesome. I'm sure the three other band members were cursing him for writing the least straight-forward verse/chorus/verse song of all time, but whatever, man!

I'm not actually typing this for someone called "man."

If there was a "man," it would be this guy who's like a hybrid of Gary B and Mark O'D (if they learned how to sap the energy from a song):



And since I don't want to type anymore, here's Sloan's video for the song, which is a real treat, especially after that last one. In fact, it'd be a real injustice if you didn't click the play button.