Artist: Peter, Bjorn & John
Label: V2
Release: 2006
A Swedish trio behind one of the biggest hits of this year. You simply can’t NOT hear the song Young Folks! It’s on the radio, on TV, on cell phones, and people all over Europe are whistling that instantly catchy melody. A bit later, it reached Japan and the US too. The delay is only because the band got the record out in those countries somewhat later than in Europe.
Truth be told, the rest of the songs on this third album don’t sound bad either. Quite the opposite, they sound pretty damn good, even if it’s true that none of the others gets under your skin quite as fast!
So where does the secret of their success lie? Mostly in the simplicity and polish of the musical arrangements, which come across as very optimistic and, shamelessly, fun too! That’s a real rarity these days, because there’s a thin line between musicians who tackle serious stuff in a fun way and musicians who are really just entertainers, no matter what subjects they take on. Peter Moren, who handles vocals and guitar, Bjorn Yttling, who also handles vocals plus bass and keyboards, and John Eriksson, who’s in charge of the rhythm in the band and sings a little here and there too, have undoubtedly pulled it off with the album “Writer’s Block”, which came out this year on Wichita.
Only on that hit we’ve already mentioned did they get a bit of help from Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes, whose gentle, more restrained, slightly sandy voice acts as a kind of counterweight to Peter Moren’s more mischievous, livelier one. Well, he sounds mischievous mostly on that song, since on the others he also loves to sing in a more laid-back way, with a pleasant, summery, lazy-afternoon weariness in his voice.
We can look at “Writer’s Block” metaphorically, as a proper apartment block. The opening track, which also gives the album its title, is a short instrumental entrance that leads us to ten apartments, which are the songs. Each apartment houses an interesting and very diverse musical crowd, who may have moved in completely by chance or may have been friends for ages with the writer, the one who looks after the building and keeps friendly relations with the tenants of all ten apartments, bringing each of them a lyric as a gift. Then they reworked it, each on their own or all together, to fit the soul of each apartment. They’ve managed to create a thoroughly pleasant and lively neighborhood, with no rowdies, no vandals, no “disturbers” of the public peace. These are just ordinary songs that always say more than you’d expect, that share both their good times and their bad, that look after good-neighbor relations with positive thinking and positive energy, and above all with music that, I think, never locks its door and at any hour warmly welcomes anyone willing to listen.
Lineup
Peter Moren – vocals, guitar
Bjorn Yttling – vocals, bass, keyboards
John Eriksson – drums, percussion, vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Victoria Bergsman – vocals (#3)
Tracklist
01. Writer’s Block
02. Objects Of My Affection
03. Young Folks
04. Amsterdam
05. Start To Melt
06. Up Against The Wall
07. Paris 2004
08. Let’s Call It Off
09. The Chills
10. Roll The Credits
11. Poor Cow
Album length: 45:35
