SOUNDTRACKS

Apparently Can's record company, before their second album was finished, wanted them to cough up material for a second release. The band didn't feel they had enough, so instead they compiled songs that had been written for movie soundtracks. Thus the album has quite a fitting name.

Soundtracks really feels like a transition album to me. It's both a mix of the band's early psychedelic jams and the band's later moves into improvisation, experimentation, and avant-garde rock. The next release, Tago Mago, brings their later form to full fruition. This is also the last appearance from Malcolm Mooney, as he only sings on two songs, Soul Desert and She Brings the Rain. The rest of the vocals are handled by Damo Suzuki, who would become the vocalist during the band's prime years. All in all, the songs on here are better than I had expected them to be, given that I think most movie soundtracks I've heard aren't any better than compilation albums filled with singles. I feel that these are fairly good, albeit short, Krautrock songs. Unfortunately, I have to agree with UMUR on this one. Many of the songs, while repetitive, feel too short for them to fully evolve and build. Although I disagree with him in that I think the tighter compositions work here, given that these were songs made for various soundtracks. I can still give Soundtracks 3 stars, but there are definitely better Can albums out there.