The Soundtrack of our Lives formed from the demise of punk band Union Carbide Productions. Released in 1996, `Welcome to the Infant Freebase' was the band's debut album. Unlike most bands that are happy enough to have a 10-12 track album at their first attempt; Soundtrack wanted to release a double album. However the record company disagreed and 20 tracks were crammed onto one CD.
For me, the first album is an opportunity for a band to define themselves and make a statement as to what they are all about. For this Swedish rock act the statement would be that they want to create mind bending psychedelic rock music with lyrics that would take its audience in to a whole new world; The world of The Soundtrack of our Lives.
The album kicks off with hit single and recognisable anthem to this day `Mantra Slider'. Ebott Lundberg's larger than life vocals along with Mattius Barjil and Ian Pearson's guitar work transcend this song into orbit. A great start to an album, but at 6 minutes and 38 seconds long you can already see the problem with the latter tracks on the album as time becomes an issue. However for their first track and especially being the debut album, it is what a new listener is likely to hear first and first impressions count for a lot. On that note, I personally was blown away as it is just a fantastic track which showed more than just a few glimpses of what they are capable of.
Second track `Firmament Vacation' is one of my favourite tracks they have done. One of the main reasons for this is because it has one of the best lyrics I have heard: `There gonna build a new dimension and make a soundtrack of our lives'. This feels like the reason behind their name and to me this is absolutely genius. This is because at the end of the day bands make albums from their personal experiences which means in effect they are making a soundtrack of their lives. Anyway although this lyric is a particular highlight the rest of the track is great as well. It is just a nice chilled out track which works well.
The album continues to deliver great song after great song, with `Underground Indian', the acoustic chestnut `Chromosome layer' and the classic `Instant Repeater 99'. The riff of the latter will go right through you as Ebott turns his vocals up a pitch. `Gran Canaria' and `Confrontation Camp' are some more worthwhile mentions. `Gran Canaria' wouldn't be out of place in a Western as it has a cowboy horse race scene feel about it, while 'Confrontation Camp' is just a great all out stomping rock song.
After this you get the feeling that not having a double CD made them cram the rest if the tracks in sacrificing both quality and quantity of the rest of the album. The average song length for the last 10 songs on the album is about 2 minutes 30 seconds. Compare this to the first 10 tracks which have an average of over 4 minutes. Don't get me wrong although the last 10 songs are not as good as the first, they are still perfectly listenable upbeat tracks mixed with more laid back tracks. But they could do with expansion into proper songs like those on the first half of the album.
Overall though, this is a fine debut. Perhaps it was a little too ambitious doing a 20 track album for their first attempt, when there are at least 10 great tracks on here which would make this an absolute belter of an album. Instead there are tracks on here which haven't had the chance to develop and several weaker tracks have been allowed to slip through the net. However the storming singles `Mantra Slider', `Firmament Vacation' and `Instant Repeater 99', 12 years on are still a mainstay in the T.S.O.O.L. live set which is why this album will be the soundtrack to many people's lives for many years to come.
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