Perhaps, in an attempt to put together a month of incredible posts on incredible albums, I’ve gotten myself in a little bit over my head. I’ve talked about records that are hard to digest after one listen plenty of times, but man, the last.fm comments on this bad boy are filled with people trying to figure out the insanity that is this record.
Let me set things up for you. In total, Soundtracks is two hours, 21 minutes, and 37 seconds long. Its 26 tracks were released on two discs, making it a double album of sorts. Believe me, I didn’t know that going in. It was the band’s last release before going on a 14-year hiatus, and while it’s often thought of as their magnum opus or something, all it is doing is scaring the bejesus out of me.
Constantly switching between sections of static, creepy and dark post-rock (that clearly influenced bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor), frightening monologues shouted by what I think is supposed to be the voice inside the listener’s head (which has a southern twang, for some reason), listening to Soundtracks has been a fairly frightening experience for me, and I’m only a third of the way through.
I’m not getting bored with this stuff, not by any means, but I definitely wouldn’t say I’m enjoying myself. I have been on the edge of my seat this whole time. I just don’t know if I’d willingly listen to Soundtracks again. I can’t stand horror movies, so it makes sense that I’d have a little trouble with what is clearly a horror album.
Swole Ear 
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