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Certain Songs #2402: The Soundtrack of Our Lives – “Saturation Wanderers”

July 19, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Communion
Year: 2008

. . .

It has struck me that The Soundtrack of Our Lives might have been a bigger band here if they hadn’t had such godawful album covers. I mean, look at that image. In a 2009 interview with Brooklyn Vegan when TSOOL lead singer Ebbot Lundberg was asked who they were and what they were drinking, this was his answer: “Suicide drinks. They are on their way back to Sirius or Orion. These people represent the alienation. The fruit of corporocracy. The living dead.”

Well, OK then.

That said, it’s by far their only terrible album cover. In fact, it’s part of a grand tradition that goes all the way back to their first album, 1996’s Welcome to The Infant Freebase.

Which is too bad, because, as I’ve said, I think Communion is one of the greatest albums of the 21st century, and that terrible cover might have kept some people away — though by then, the great streaming diaspora was in full swing and album art became even less important than when CDs took over from vinyls.

Anyways, none of that really has anything to do with today’s song, the gloriously psychedelic “Saturation Wanderers,” which begins with guitar in one speaker and tinkling keyboards in the other over which Lundberg quietly sings.

Here we go again
To be the rulers of the universe
Here we go again
To put an end to the eternal curse

All we know there’s a place for you
If you’re ready to see it through
When saturation begins

At that point, the full band kicks in, led by merciless drummer Fredrik Sandsten, who builds and rolls and lands on a classically psychedelic backbeat as they roar into the second verse:

Here we go again
In a holographic interplay
Here we go again
And we’re separating time and space

The back half of the song is all drum rolls and Lundberg’s joyful singing on the chorus

All we know there’s a place for you
If you’re ready to make it through
When saturation begins

My favorite moments are when Lundberg is singing “saaaaa-turrrrr-aaaaaaaaa-shunnnnnn” and Sandsten goes from the tension-filled rolls to a massive double-time beat as Lundberg finishes with “beeginnnnnnns” as the guitars and horns and keyboards and backing vocals all separate time and space. None of which you’d expect by looking at the cover.

“Saturation Wanderers”

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Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Communion, Saturation Wanderers, Soundtrack of Our Lives

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2422: Spiritualized – “Walkin’ With Jesus (Royal Albert Hall Oct 10, 1997)”
  • Certain Songs #2421: Spiritualized – “Medication (Royal Albert Hall, Oct 10, 1997)”
  • Certain Songs #2420: Spiritualized – “Electric Mainline (Royal Albert Hall, Oct 10, 1997)”
  • Certain Songs #2419: Spiritualized – “Electricity”
  • Certain Songs #2418: Spiritualized – “I Think I’m In Love”

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