Consumer Guide Album

Sloan: Smeared [Geffen, 1993]
As Nova Scotian as lox and bagels, it's orthodox North American neohip. The specifics of the Halifax "scene" are irrelevant; dissonant, guitar-decentered pop has become the province of anyone within reach of a culturally correct college radio station--anyone "Left of Centre," a title that refers in so many words to "pop culture" rather than politics. The most meaningful song is the opener, about a cool coed whose grade average is higher than the singer's even though "her spelling's atrocious." Everywhere else, the ugly beauty of the guitars sustains. B+