A Quiet Question in the Midst of Glam’s Roar: How Can It Be is Slade’s tender reflection on confusion and longing.
On their fourth studio album, Old New Borrowed and Blue, released in February 1974, Slade surprised many fans by venturing beyond their trademark foot-stomping anthems into more nuanced territory. The album itself reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. Nestled amid that bold stylistic widening is “How Can It Be”, a delicate, country-tinged song that stands in contrast to the band’s louder hits.
Though “How Can It Be” was not released as a standalone single, it occupies a deeply intimate space on Old New Borrowed and Blue, revealing a more reflective Slade. In an era when the band was known for rollicking glam-rock stompers, this track feels like a whispered confession a moment of vulnerability carved out in the midst of their raucous success.
Musically, “How Can It Be” departs from Slade’s arena-shaking energy. The song leans gently into country-rock stylings, with its acoustic guitar framing Noddy Holder’s plaintive vocals in a way that feels grounded and earnest. The mellow arrangement suggests a band willing to slow down, to let space breathe, and to let emotion settle.
Lyrically, the singer seems caught in a swirl of doubt: questioning a relationship, grappling with the incomprehensible twists of love, and wondering how things turned out so unexpectedly. The repeated refrain “How can it be” becomes not just a rhetorical question, but a mantra an admission that the self doesn’t fully understand the other, let alone the bond they share. It’s a vulnerability that feels raw, even if not sensational. This is not a power ballad; it’s a quiet reckoning.
This track matters in the broader tapestry of Old New Borrowed and Blue because it embodies the album’s very ambition: to stretch Slade’s identity beyond the rowdy rockers into something more thoughtful, more tender. The album itself was a risk, recorded in late 1973 while the band was touring, even as drummer Don Powell was recovering from a near-fatal car accident. In that context, “How Can It Be” feels like a moment of catharsis a lull in the storm, where questions are allowed, and uncertainty is embraced.
Emotionally, the song resonates because it captures a universal human experience: the disorientation of love that doesn’t make sense, even when it’s deeply felt. It’s that quiet ache of realizing things aren’t as straightforward as you once believed. At its core, “How Can It Be” is not about resolution, it’s about wrestling with the unanswerable.
In the span of just a few minutes, Slade shows us another side of themselves: not the raucous glam warriors for whom they were known, but introspective storytellers. For a listener attuned to subtlety, this song is one of those hidden gems a gentle sigh beneath the band’s larger-than-life roar.