The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
From page 73 of Classic Rock Magazine September 2009
Communion RAIN PCWER CC
Ambitious two-CD package from Swedish rock giants.
The Strawbs '''-There's a very
.. strong case
i
' • ' indeed to add —2 " - ‘ 41 -this 94-minute
epic to the list of the Greatest Double Albums Of All Time (well below London Calling and The Wall, but definitely in the top 50). There's no filler, half of it's instant and half of it slowly grows on you, and there's a majestic, era-hopping sweep to it. What more could you possibly want?
In a nutshell, Communion is the kind of big rock album Oasis think they've been making for actually haven't. There are elements of HOsker DO's retooling of 60s garage psychedelia, White album-era Beatles, Beggars Banquet-era Stones, The Band and The Who, all wrapped in the kind of lyrics you can only come up with if your entire English vocabulary is drawn from rock albums. Not that those lyrics aren't occasionally intriguing Second Life Replay, which opens with the line 'I killed myself today', and Fan Who Wasn't There have a sweet folky creepiness.
Big in their native Sweden, a staple of European festival and with a growing stature in the US (their biggest crossover success was one of their songs featuring as the theme tune to a wrestling tournament), TSOOL could probably lay claim to being the biggest undiscovered band in the world. Really, this excellent album should change all that. •••••••• Johnny Use


