Two things distinquish Sloan's latest album from its predecessors: It's a 30-song suite, and it has a lighter touch. Those qualities are linked.

The Canadian quartet titled its 2003 set Action Pact, and that pun accurately represented the band's style. Nearly every tune was a sparkling pop-rocker that strained to be worthy of the mid-'60s hits of the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Who. Never Heard the End of It has some numbers that strive that hard, but they're balanced by more easygoing, less elaborate material. Several of these selections are spare and pensive, and about a third of them run less than 100 seconds.

The approach has its risks, yielding a few musical sketches that suggest one of those offhand Paul McCartney albums where he plays all the instruments. Yet these songs (written and sung by all four members) fit together well. The near-epic "I Understand," whose arrangement includes horns and bells, segues neatly into a simple one-minute tune. Balanced between these stylistic extremes are such charmers as "Ill Placed Trust," which showcases the foursome's arena-rocking side, and "Can't You Figure It Out?," which invokes a classic Lovin' Spoonful tune, "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" This time, Sloan decided not to make up its mind, and the result of that indecision may well be the band's best album.

- Mark Jenkins