The Soundtrack of Our Lives: Behind the Music
The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Behind the Music
Republic/Universal Records
By Joe Vallejos
I’m not sure exactly how or when Sweden became the home of so many great bands, but lately it seems like an inordinate amount hail from the country that once issued a Roxette postage stamp, and many of them are surprisingly good (The Hives, Sahara Hotnights, The Hellacopters, and The International Noise Conspiracy being the most notable examples.) So with much hype, this Northern European burg gives us The Soundtrack of Our Lives and their third release, Behind the Music. Noel Gallagher called the album the best release of the past six years. I’m not sure about that, but it doesn’t sound like most of the stuff out there and it certainly has some fine moments.
Gallagher’s statement isn’t surprising, considering all 15 tracks on Behind the Music have a clear musical reference point, a trait shared by Gallagher’s own band Oasis. On “In Someone Else’s Mind,” so heavy is the Pink Floyd inspiration that I keep waiting for lead singer Ebbot Lundberg to sing “the lunatic is in the grass.” The Who, The Kinks, The Beatles, Love, and T. Rex are all present and accounted for, and sometimes at the same time. SOOL cover all the bases, with piano ballads (“Tonight,”) acoustic numbers (“In Someone Else’s Mind”) and straight-ahead ass shakers like “Sister Surround” and “21st Century Rip Off.”
The songs trace the highpoints and pitfalls of becoming popular and fading away, giving Behind the Music kind of a “concept album” feel. It plays like, well, like an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music (clever Swedes). “Tonight” allows the listener to feel what it’s like to be on stage and to be the most important person in the world at that moment. There’s also a welcome nod to the swagger many of the British bands of the late 90’s had, especially on “Mind The Gap,” with lyrics such as “Cause we’re taking over, and you’ve got nothing to say/Yeah we’re taking over/And we might as well blow you away.”
Sound like neo-hippie shite? At first glance, maybe so, but there aren’t too many musical frontiers left, and sometimes drawing from the past isn’t a bad idea, provided your influences are worthy.
Nada Mucho Content Editor Adam Lawrence recently said “Behind the Music is like a grave, cuz I’m diggin’ it. It took me a bit longer to find my shovel, but now I’m diggin’ it too. (8.5/10)
Read more about The Soundtrack of Our Lives on the band’s Wikipedia page.