Sloan - B Sides Win Vol. 1 1992-1997 (2020)

Tracklist

01. Underwhelmed (Original Hear & Now Version)
02. Amped
03. Sleepover
04. Pillow Fight
05. Rag Doll
06. Laying Blame
07. D is for Driver
08. Stood Up (Studio Version)
09. Same Old Flame (Studio Version)

Considered the stepchild to the A-side or even the forgotten orphan of the LP track, the B-side is often regarded as a throwaway to fill space on the flip side of a 7” or 12” single, pad out a Japanese version of a CD or be given away to a persuasive person soliciting a track for their compilation.

However!!…It’s not uncommon for the B-side to rise to the occasion and compete one to one with the A-side and become a classic unto itself. “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths, “Fools Gold” by The Stone Roses and even “Maggie May” by Rod the Mod all first appeared as B-Sides that were soon flipped over and given the acclaim that they deserved. Now, I don’t know if any of our songs on this vinyl collection B Sides Win Vol. 1 1992-1997 will go down in pop history like those did (some just may, give them time!), yet I do like to think that we did our best to offer good musical value tracks on our B-sides, bonus tracks or extras.

This collection begins with the original version of “Underwhelmed” that was released on the Hear & Now cassette compilation and ends with “Stood Up” and “Same Old Flame”, both referred to as the “studio versions” (different from the 7” recordings) that we recorded again for the original Japanese CD of One Chord To Another. In between there are early tracks such as “Sleepover” and “Rag Doll” (originally released on UK 12” and CD singles) that still showed off our early mode and clearly owed a debt to My Bloody Valentine and the Creation Records sound. A number of these tracks contained within are making their vinyl appearance for the first time.

This collection is just the first of a series of remastered B-Sides vinyl collections that we’ll be releasing over time and are a limited edition of 1200 copies, housed in a heavy-duty tip-on jacket with lyrics and commentary on the inner sleeve and pressed on to lovely sea blue translucent vinyl.

To apply an adjustment Andrew’s original lyric, “let’s raise our glass to the B-side!”, Jay F

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