Everything about “Origin Vol. I” is big: Big chords. Big ideas. Big energy. Even the first single is big, or rather “Bigtime,” although that is one place the Soundtrack of Our Lives has yet to arrive. This album, the Swedish band’s sixth (but only the second with major U.S. distribution, a worthy follow-up to the brilliant 2002 disc “Behind the Music”) should change all that. TSOOL has worked the essential riffs of big-arena rock’n’roll (the Who, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC) into its own unstoppable DNA: These guys are peers, not poachers; they’ve got an entertaining, imprecisely defined worldview that splits the difference between “living the Aquarian dream” (“Midnight Children”) and a scary sci-fi future (“Bigtime”) that looks a lot like today. Made to be played loud on a grand automobile sound system, “Origin Vol. I” is big fun.—WR
