08 April 2011

peter bjorn and john - gimme some

I wonder if the trio were scared by the success of 'Young Folks' a few years back. It's certainly brought them recognition and a whole swathe of new fans who had not previously heard of the Stockholm trio. I'd also be interested to know what these new fans thought of the follow-up album, Living Things. It was a very experimental album and not what you'd expect from a band who could make such great pop music. 




It wasn't as if this was their tricky 3rd album either, Living Things was the 5th studio album and they had a secure fanbase and a record company that trusts them to make great music. Hence my question about withdrawing from the limelight and taking time to try out a few things. If they did then I think these things worked a treat as their latest album, Gimme Some, is a return to the indie pop that they obviously love making.




It's a harkback to their roots in pre-Brit Pop indie music of Ride and Stone Roses, Sundays, Sugarcubes and Suede. The whole album is far rockier than I was expecting and the tempo is maintained more or less throughout the whole album. The vocals too have more of an edge with Peter Moran sounding more and more Scouse-like every time I hear him. It's almost John Lennon-like, the way his accent inflects and sounds when singing. Is it just me that thinks this? There's also a little bit of Vampire Weekend in this album too, most notably on 'Dig A Little Deeper' (see video above). My favourite track is the first release from the album, 'Second Chance'. It reminds me of their earlier works but is a bit more rock and roll, as if they've finally learnt to trust their instincts on what is good pop music. The video to this is below - definitely a big nod to the Rolling Stones video to 'Wild Horse' methinks. It will be very interesting to see where they go from here.



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