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Peter Bjorn And John - Living Thing
| Rollingstone |
| This Stockholm trio's fifth album offers more of what made "Young Folks" (2006) an international hipster anthem: infectious electro–acoustic tunes framing tales of romance and its discontents. The melodies are winsome throughout, but Living Thing is a record for beat mavens, with clattery drum–programming propelling songs that nod to Depeche Mode ("It Don't Move Me") and South African township jive ("Living Thing"). The lyrics are by turns earnest and cheeky, but PB & J are most fun when they're feisty: In "Lay It Down," the three cry, "Hey, shut the fuck up, boy/You are starting to piss me off" — a timeless sentiment, sure to resonate with young folks of all ages....full text |
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| Spin |
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Two years ago, this Swedish trio scored an international smash with "Young Folks," an indie-pop sleeper so relentlessly upbeat that everyone from Kanye west to Budweiser whistled its refrain. But now, as fans await another breezy hit, PB&J take a dark turn, as if consumed by success-story guilt. With spare electro beats and aching confessions -- "I can laugh if I want to / But it won't make me happy" -- Living Thing won't double as anyone's dance-party playlist. But it's an uneasy, bracingly honest soundtrack to life after fame. Blame Metallica. While PB&J were writing this album, they released 2007's instrumental Seaside Rock, which they referred to as a form of "therapy" and "our Some Kind of Monster," later admitting to punching each other during mixing sessions. But with samples of Cabaret Voltaire and Suicide, it also reignited their love of artfully damaged electronic music -- an influence that still haunts them. "Losing My Mind" is all broken wind-chime clangs, while "Nothing to Worry About" begins innocently enough with a children's choir, but warbles around so woozily that the title begins to sound menacing. The radio-catchy "Lay It Down" features skull-cracking synths and a chorus of "Hey, shut the fuck up, boy!" Not a savvy career move, but for a band who've been covered by Top 40 schmaltz king James Blunt, there's a better word for it: brave....full text |
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| Boston Globe |
| For anyone who's had "Young Folks" careening around their cranium for the past two years, fear not - there's no whistling on "Living Thing." In fact, most of the buoyancy of Peter Bjorn and John's debut has been replaced by a relatively muted synthesized thrum, which snakes under each refrain without ever giving way to full-fledged reverie. "You just gotta lay it down," the band harmonizes on the PG-13 rant "Lay It Down," and it might as well be a mission statement. As others have noted, "Living Thing" is at heart a collection of eclectic beats, from the skittering title track to the stutter-stop snap of "Stay This Way" to the bass-heavy scrape of "4 Out of 5." The Stockholm-based trio has also piped in a good deal of lyrical gravity - another contrast to PB&J's persistently perky first album - and the best tunes have a welcome heft. "I'm a blue period Picasso stuck on the wall in the middle of a wall in Barcelona trying to figure out how to get down," runs one refrain, "because this solitude is bringing me down." The album has been streaming for free on MySpace, but do yourself a favor and buy the disc outright. This "Thing" is a keeper. (Out tomorrow)...full text |
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