I can\u2019t believe that four years has passed since I first listened to Peter, Bjorn & John with their breakout disc, 2007\u2019s Writer\u2019s Block. <\/i>Their particular blend of Swedish pop has always been endearing, and their latest album is arguably their best since the peak they hit with Writer\u2019s Block. <\/i>2009\u2019s dark, brooding Living Thing <\/i>found them sidestepping the vigorous success of single \u201cYoung Folks\u201d and all its inescapable cheerfulness. But this disc reclaims that sort of spunk, casting aside that bitterness and picking up the claps, cowbells, and bright guitars, and hopefully makes clear that Peter, Bjorn & John will be remembered for more than one awesome single.<\/p>\n
Album opener \u201cTomorrow Has To Wait\u201d launches things out with this sunnier outlook. Throwing in piles of jangling instrumentation and vocal harmonies makes the arguably damning refrain \u201cI don\u2019t think that you are sorry for what you did\u201d somehow sound positively jubilant. Meanwhile, second song \u201cDig A Little Deeper\u201d is its own conga-line of energy, swerving along with sing-songy \u201coh-oh!\u201d\u2019s and hard-jamming drums. Singer-guitarist Peter Mor\u00e9n\u00a0is always enjoyable to listen to with his slightly nasal, scratchy vocals (okay, not the best-sounding description, but it fits in well with the cleanly crafted, grooving beats). <\/p>\n
It\u2019s lead single \u201cSecond Chance\u201d where the album really takes flight, though. Mor\u00e9n\u2019s vocals are more muted and seductive, and the song itself combines catchiness with maturity: \u201cYou can\u2019t count on the second try \/ The second try is such a comedown,\u201d he says, possibly alluding to Living Thing<\/i>. Such sentiments are what make Peter, Bjorn & John so interesting \u2013 they hit such a peak with Writer\u2019s Block <\/i>that it\u2019s inevitable their ensuing output will be compared to that set of cohesive, excellent songs. And while Gimme Some <\/i>is less of an engrossing listen overall than that album, it is nevertheless a pretty strong collection, with every song possessing its own vitality and sense of rhythm. There\u2019s no denying that these guys have a knack for crisp, tailored production and sound, but their biggest challenge has been trying to move their listeners the way their breakthrough did.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Where that album captured first love in all its breathless glory, Gimme Some <\/i>returns time and time again to heartbreak. \u201cBreaker, Breaker\u201d is a perfect example of their pairing of whirring, energized guitars and drums (they almost approach speed metal here) and lyrics that triumph out of sadness (\u201cBefore you break my heart \/ Before you run \/ I\u2019m gonna break your nose and sing about it\u201d). Even a song titled \u201cI Know You Don\u2019t Love Me\u201d doesn\u2019t fall into pits of its own despair, instead taking its shimmers of electronica, dreamy vocals, and lines like \u201cNo one brings me down like me\u201d to turn potential limpidness into a strange sort of assertiveness. <\/p>\n
The peculiar, interesting thing about Gimme Some <\/i>is that it will draw you in on first listen because of the sheer exuberance of its beats \u2013 this is seamless pop, after all \u2013 and then it will become more endearing on further listen when you realize how much emotion and craft has gone into these songs.\u00a0 Strangely, these songs became all the more intriguing to me in comparison to Writer\u2019s Block <\/i>and Living Thing <\/i>to see where Peter, Bjorn & John has come from and where they\u2019re headed to. Gimme Some <\/i>might not have you whistling along like \u201cYoung Folks\u201d did, but it inspires a wider range of emotions and reactions, and that seems pretty great in itself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":30640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7998],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42311","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-peter-bjorn-and-john","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42311"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}