MUSIC: Peter, Bjorn, and John - 'Writers Block' Album review

Thought I'd start posting some of my not-so-obsolete CD reviews from days of Taxi lore. (Hong Kong's greatest magazine to never make it? Count me in. Love that shit. Too bad the new one looks like an in-flight wank for bankers. Such is life in Hong Kong's publishing-starved bubble. Could it be because I'm dating the founding editor? Does the Pope shit in the woods?)

Click the link below to read the full review






Peter, Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
Wichita
4 1/2 stars





Does anyone out there believe me when I say that Sweden is the third highest music producing country behind the US and the UK? No, didn't think so. Well apparently they are, and if they can keep coming out with music as fucking good as Peter Bjorn & John's Writer's Block then I for one will have more reason to emigrate there (apart from wanting to marry into blonde Nordic lineage rich with Viking ancestry).

This is their first release outside of Sweden and the US, and the album has been garnering rave reviews from the pop-throwback-hipster crowd in New York and cool places aplenty.

With the beguiling Victoria Bergsman, of the Concretes, providing vocals on Young Folks, along with some not altogether annoying whistling, the song is well deserved of the airplay this has been getting everywhere from Stockholm, New York to Tokyo. Luckily they are more than a one-hit wonder, with Amsterdam, Starts To Melt and The Chills all being quality songs among a strong selection.

With a sound that mashes indie-pop with a keen lyrical sense, Peter, Bjorn and John will be cherished at last by the international crowd, before being played to death, thus sickening all who listen, before joining Gnarls Barkley in the Overplayed Hell. While nothing ground-breaking appears on this album, what they manage to achieve is catchy guitar pop that doesn't suck.

Sounds like: The Cardigans with their hair down, whistles round their necks, and drum & bass beats in the back...