“The Lines You Amend” by Sloan

"The Lines You Amend" was the third single pulled from One Chord to Another, the Canadian band Sloan's 1996 album on Murderecords, and it broke new ground inside the band: the first Jay Ferguson song they ever put out as a single. It's a sly trick of a record. Chris Murphy, Sloan's bassist and singer, said it was about suicide, and that the band breezes through it like a sweet little number while the words carry the weight. Ferguson even slips in a nod to Ringo Starr's "Photograph".

Critics went for the melodies. One called it "Beatle-esque pop", Billboard's reviewer thought of Violent Femmes, and Rolling Stone's heard it open like "The Ballad of John and Yoko" before turning into a cross of T. Rex and Crowded House. Part of the video was shot in a York University lecture hall.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.