10 Most Underrated 90s Indie Bands You Need To Listen To
7. Sloan
It may’ve taken a few years (and some prior bands) to get going, but by the first half of the 1990s, Sloan were ready to be one of Canada’s premier indie rock prospects. While they definitely gained distinction there—ultimately becoming one of the country’s best-selling artists, at least for a time—they were far less popular in other parts of the globe.
Part of the reason is that they shifted styles between their first two albums, with the shoegaze/grunge templates of 1992’s Smeared being swapped for more melodic coatings on 1994’s Twice Removed. As a result, the promotional support for that second sequence was lessened, so not nearly enough people got to discover it. (Spin cited it as one of the “10 Best Albums You Didn’t Hear in ’94.”)
That disappointment made them contemplate breaking up, yet they eventually persevered and created an additional three studio records during the decade, further evolving their synthesis of power pop and alternative rock. With 1999’s Between the Bridges, they’d firmly established themselves as masters of their craft.
As with several other acts on this list, Sloan are still going, but even singer Jay Ferguson feels that those first outings were the best.