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I'm From Barcelona - Who Killed Harry Houdini?
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| Pastemagazine |
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"In my heart, still a kid,” Emanuel Lundgren sings on Who Killed Harry Houdini? the new album by Swedish group I’m From Barcelona. In fact, he sings the line in two different songs. The first time is on “Mingus,” a contemplation of an old friend who’s settled down in suburbia with a wife, kid and “four-wheel drive.” With horror, Lundgren reacts, “Oh my god.” He sings the line a second time on “Rufus,” a plea to an imaginary 10-foot dog from the singer’s childhood to come and rescue him from the fate glimpsed in the earlier song. He wants to make an escape worthy of Houdini, his childhood idol. He’s not ready yet to be a conventional adult; in his heart he’s still a kid. It’s a feeling everyone has in the first few months after finally leaving school; it’s a feeling that never completely goes away, that deserves a sound bigger than a conventional rock band. It deserves horns, choirs, synths, multiple guitars and circus percussion, and that’s what it gets from I’m From Barcelona, an ensemble that lists 28 members on its website and often takes most of them on tour. The group is an attempt to grasp the expansive pop grandeur of ’60s producers such as Phil Spector and George Martin—not by hiring anonymous session pros, but by having a band large enough to cover every need....full text |
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| Popmatters |
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What was more impressive about that album was the way so many musicians seemed folded into a sound not much bigger than Boy Least Likely To. And, yeah, twee’s moment in the sun faded by late ’06, but it’s coming back. Oh, it’s on its way back. (Did you hear “I Box Up All the Butterflies” yet?) So again on cue, Jonkoping, Sweden, churns out all its under-30s for part two. I’m from Barcelona’s website lists 28 members, including (by the looks of it) twins in identical glasses but different hairstyles. But ten of those just sing, three play saxophone, and though there are a few orchestral flourishes on the instrument list (mandolin, accordion), the group’s really a good-size orchestral indie group with a substantial backup chorus. No need to harp on the numbers, though, despite what misgivings you may have at the very thought of almost thirty hipsters making joyous, ironic twee-pop together. That’s because I’m from Barcelona yields submissively to its main man, Emanuel Lundgren, and his creative vision. This was the case for Let Me Introduce My Friends, too—Lundgren’s doing the introducing, and these are Lundgren songs we’re singing along to. But if Lundgren still believes the words with which he ends the album, that “In my heart, I’m still a kid”, one thing’s sure: songwriting-wise, he’s all grown up....full text |
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| Tinymixtapes |
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The upcoming presidential election. The downturn of the economy. The mortgage crisis. The bankruptcy of long-standing Wall Street institutions. The Iraq War. President Bush. 2008 has been a rough year for Americans of every creed. So perhaps it’s not too surprising that one of the year’s finest twee pop albums arrives on our ravaged shores from Sweden, a country that ranked seventh on an international Satisfaction with Life survey just two years ago. And what is pop music but a means to escape the everyday woes and pressures of the world, temporarily replacing them with unpretentious musical melodies. Early buzz about I’m from Barcelona (ironically, a 29-person band from Sweden) arrived in the United States in 2005 after bloggers caught wind of the band’s homemade EP. Who Killed Harry Houdini?, the band’s second full-length release and first on major-label affiliate Mute Records, continues the group’s tradition of making happy, light-hearted pop music that’s simultaneously fizzy and sticky. "Music Killed Me" opens with the words "Music almost killed me now/ I don’t understand" and lyrically doesn’t evolve much past those words. However, lead singer and songwriter Emanuel Lundgren has remarkably found a way to deepen his band’s lush, joyous sound even further, and the track is soon overtaken by a dramatic and touching harmonic chorus of ahhhhs that make the air a little warmer, the sky seem a deeper, more vibrant shade of blue, and you a little younger, a little stupider, and a little more invincible....full text |
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Go to "I'm From Barcelona " lyrics