Okay, so the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John has just
released their second full length album, Writer’s Block within the last few weeks. And you should know about it.
Something interesting has happened over the past six or
seven years – new music keeps emerging that is highly derivative of past
musical eras – often several past musical eras at the same time. Most of what we’ve
been hearing contains elements that sound vaguely familiar. You may hear New Wave here,
a little 60s folk music over there, elements of early 70s Led Zeppelin back
over there in the corner. Many bands
are blatantly ripping off a sound that they assume people have forgotten about
– but others take these disparate elements and create something entirely new
and fresh. When it
works, it’s like the musical equivalent of a film like Pulp Fiction – which was a hodgepodge of four or five different
(and, at that point, ancient) film genres, combined into a film that is
arguably one of the most exciting pictures of the past 25 years.
Okay – I mention all of this to tell you that Peter Bjorn
and John’s new album, Writer’s Block,
will absolutely remind you of music from the past – namely 60s pop and 80s New
Wave (with slightly more emphasis on the former). However, these guys sound entirely fresh.
The three musicians, Peter Moren (vocals, guitar,
harmonica), Bjorn Yttling (vocals, bass, keyboards) and John Eriksson (drums,
percussion, vocals) hail from Sweden. They formed in 1999 and, since then, have released
several singles, a couple of EPs, and a full length album, Falling Out, in 2003. But nothing they’ve released quite prepared us
for Writer’s Block.
While their previous album was straight-ahead great pop
music, this album takes it a step further. The boys employ interesting studio tricks on
virtually every song. The whistle on “Young Folks” was
originally supposed to be a guide for an instrument to be decided upon later,
but they decided to leave the whistle instead. It’s an unusual sound over the sparse rhythm
track - sort of like the score from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly over a Chic bassline. Overall, the music
sounds as if it was recorded in a vacuum; everything has an echo-y sheen which creates an
unusually melancholic mood for an album of power pop. Creative percussion abounds – in fact, on one
song, “The Chills,” it sounds as if they've employed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s old
enemy, The Predator, to help them with some rhythm tracks.
Lyrically, many tracks are unabashedly romantic; songs like “Paris 2004,” where
the singer happily putters, “I’m all about you, you’re all about me, we’re all
about each other.” In
others, the singer is facing the end of a relationship; in “Up Against The
Wall”, he confesses over a New Order bassline, “It’s almost that I wish we
hadn’t met at all.” One of
my favorite lyrics is from “The
Chills:” “Your tongue is sharp,
but I miss the taste of it / You say time heals / There’s not enough of
it.” In “Object of My
Affection,” he self-actualizes, “I laugh more often now / I cry more often now
/ I am more ME.”
The flagship song for the album, however, is “Young Folks”
with its haunting whistle and shared male/female vocals. This song is incredible – the
kind of track that can make a career if handled properly. At first, it seems like a
romantic song, about meeting someone and falling in love. But it
has a dark undertone.
Despite the fact that it's called “Young Folks,” the point of
view seems to be from a man and woman who have been around the block; they each
have experienced enough heartache and sadness to make them instantly mistrust
the idea of entering into a relationship with another person.And yet – they still possess enough hope to give the other person a try – even if it’s just “to see this
night through.” The
music is a study in minimalism – you can almost SEE the space in the music as
the bass and drums thrum along, with only a few percussive and keyboard
flourishes to suggest a band.Paired with the double-edged lyrics, the
result is simply haunting.
You can hear the band at http://www.myspace.com/peterbjornandjohn. Every song on this album is great – but
here are a few I'd suggest you try first: “Young Folks,” “Let’s Call It Off,” “Up Against The Wall.”
|
Listen up! 
on Amazon.com
(0 vote)
