The Soundtrack of Our Lives | Communion

Yep Roc (2009)

By MIKAEL WOOD | March 17, 2009

2.5 Stars

"Swede relief: Soundtrack of Our Lives, live at the Paradise, March 9, 2009" by Daniel Brockman. Also slideshow of the show by Christopher Huang.

In the mind of Ebbott Lundberg, who's led this Swedish psych-garage outfit for nearly a decade and a half, Who's Next posed a question in need of an answer. Lundberg has one, of course: on Communion, the group's fifth studio set, he and his cronies ride their wayback machine to a time before iTunes started chipping away at album rock's full-length fixation.

This thing contains 24 tracks spread over two CDs, with aptly titled Disc 1 opener "Babel On" gliding past the six-minute mark. As you might have guessed, nobody but TSOOL completists (and Mojo subscribers) needs all this stuff. Yet within Communion's overload lurk a handful of neo-Nuggets nuggets.

In "Thrill Me," Lundberg flexes his raspy papa-bear bellow over a deliciously sleazy glam-soul groove, and "The Fan Who Wasn't There" channels the delicate English-garden melancholy of the Zombies' best work. (But dudes, next time maybe think about A Quick One?)

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