Behind the Music

As Hives mania grows by thousands of decibels daily, a sextet from Gotheburg have virtually become the second next big thing of 2002.

SOOL used to trade under the Union Carbide Productions (UCP) moniker which used to be a seriously cool name to drop if you were a musician in the late ’80s and early ’90s, especially if you were a musician who happened to hang out with Billy Corgan, Kurt Cobain, The Replacements or the Jesus Lizard. They re-grouped in 1994 under the SOOL banner and purveyed a more traditional pop/rock route while still tackling a couple of wild diversions.

Behind The Music is their third album and the one tipped to make them household names . Essentially, this is a very competent selection of fifteen songs crafted in fashion similar to Doves, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Love, with tracks such as ‘Mind the Gap’ and ‘Broken Imaginary Time’ sound almost exactly what you’d imagine a George Harrison and Jez Willaims collaboration to sound like.

SOOL’s excellent musicianship serves them well and saves them from completely slipping into a derivative hell, yet most of these arrangements still wear gossamer thin.

Not bad, but if you’re going to pose and promise so flamboyantly, not bad is not good enough.