Spanning 30 tracks and 76 minutes, SLOANS new album NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT forces us to use cliched terms like return to form. Reconciling four talented songwriters (the group rotates instruments and lead vocals) into a 12 song album has never been an easy task for the band. With this in mind, NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT abandons any hope of whittling the groups collective songwriting into the average 10-14 song cycle and instead revives the album cohesion of the bands 1999 album Between The Bridges, which had most of the songs connecting to each other. In fact, as a whole, NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT combines the best of SLOAN that has come before: the playfulness of Twice Removed, the minimalist appeal of One Chord To Another, the musical variation of Navy Blues, and the cohesion of Between the Bridges.If youve already been converted to the SLOAN cause, you probably dont need much convincing to play this CD. But the rest of you should do yourselves a favour and give it a good thrashing. SLOAN is back and the world is a better place for it.