Sloan – If It Feels Good, Do It

Every time I hear Sloan, I think of deKe…he is the one who turned me on to them, and since then they have been on my playlists.

I’ve never understood why Sloan didn’t become a major band in the United States. They had great songs, fantastic harmonies, and could play just about any style of rock they wanted. Maybe they were too melodic for modern rock radio and a little too loud for pop radio. Whatever the reason, America missed out on one of Canada’s finest bands. This song is the perfect introduction if you’ve never heard Sloan before. It’s power pop with some muscle behind it.

There are power pop songs that make you smile, and then there are power pop songs that kick the door open. Sloan’s falls into that second category. It has all the hooks you’d expect, but it’s wrapped in crunchy guitars and attitude. Power pop with a great riff and a chorus you can’t get out of your head.

By the time Pretty Together was released in 2001, Sloan had already become one of Canada’s most respected rock bands. Formed in Halifax before relocating to Toronto, the group was unusual because all four members, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson, and Andrew Scott, wrote songs and sang lead vocals. That gave every album a different personality. One song might sound like The Beatles, the next Cheap Trick, then Big Star, followed by something with a little more crunch. Somehow it all fit together. They never seemed interested in chasing trends. They simply wrote the kind of records they wanted to hear.

Patrick Pentland wrote this song, and it became the lead single from Pretty Together. The song opens with Chris Murphy asking, “What rock and roll should really be?” before the band answers with four minutes of pure energy. It’s catchy without sounding too sweet. The guitars have enough bite to satisfy rock fans, while the melody stays in classic power pop territory. It was nominated for Best Single at the 2002 Juno Awards and was on the Triple Play 2002 video game and the film The Girl Next Door.

If It Feels Good, Do It

Your sight-specific knack
I fall under attack
The only time you cross the line
Is when you’re crossing back

Have you changed the song we were singing
Or have I just lost the air
If I said your behavior suffocates
Would you care?

Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t…

You found the perfect spot
For Jimmy’s wicked thoughts
It’s in my permanent collection
Now like it or not
Wishing away that the legacy left
Came in a frame and was the victim of theft
It adds more worth to work I’ve done
But as long as you’ve had fun

Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t…

I didn’t get your revisions
But sometimes life’s not fair
To think you almost apologized

Put her there, there, there
Don’t be sad at all
I’m about to get killed off
The writing’s on the wall
If you believe everything that you read
Turn to the only thing that you ever need
It says to do unto other
But the thing is you do

Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t…

Don’t stop
Don’t stop
Don’t stop, if it feels good do it
Don’t…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

38 thoughts on “Sloan – If It Feels Good, Do It”

  3. Pingback: Sloan – If It Feels Good, Do It – MobsterTiger

  4. Great pick, writeup and thanks for the shout out! I dig that “kick the door open” line that you wrote. It’s true as when they want to rock up the pop they have the chops to kick the door maybe even off the hinges at times.
    Another cool fact that its still the same 4 guys that started Sloan in the early 90s are still in Sloan.

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  5. I saw them once live, put on a pretty good performance and kept the audience into it even though they were only an opening act. Certainly were regulars on Canadian radio in the ’90s and that was a good thing

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  7. For Sloan were just one of those 90s bands that were just there. I think they did open the doors for an onslaught of bands that came out of Halifax at the time, and Canada was full of a lot of great acts at that time as well….only saw them live once at a small club at our University and catchy and good, and they could write great catchy hooks like no one else, at that time along with the likes of 5440, the Tragically Hip, Grapes of Wrath, and so many others they were a part of a great surge. they’re still making great music.

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      3. It’s a jacked up mess, now. All the rockers we grew up with are aging out. Real bands are disappearing. What we get, now is…music from movies. Sia & Lissie make money that way. They don’t tour anymore…unless Lissie still shows up at SXSW.

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  10. “If It Feels Good to Do It” is my kind of rock-oriented power pop. In my case it was a post by Dave (A Sound Day) that brought Sloan on my radar screen a couple of years ago – one of the many great music acts out of Canada! I’ve since covered a couple of their songs, but not from the “Pretty Together” album, which I now feel like checking out!

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  12. *Daily Juice*

    _Nobody knows your entire life’s story like you. They may have heard pieces of it, but no one will ever know you like the way you know yourself. Learn to stay calm._

    _Don’t allow your anger become someone else’s victory. Your heart was not created to wither and be discouraged, promise yourself to always bloom no matter how faded life is in your eyes. Live in the present truth, do not not return your mind to the past, so that you do not become stuck to the past. There’s something that distinguises you from others. Find that thing that sets you apart from everyone else and build on it. Your strength is in your uniqueness!_

    _Your freedom begins when you reach a point where you do not feel the need to impress or win the approval of anyone around you but God and yourself._

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