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Music CD - Peter Bjorn and John: Writer's Block (LTD Edition with Bonus Disc)
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Music CD: Writer's Block (LTD Edition with Bonus Disc)
Artist: Peter Bjorn and John
List Price: $12.98
Our Price: $8.76
Your Save: $ 4.22 ( 33% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Almost Gold
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Writers Block
2. Objects Of My Affection
3. Young Folks
4. Amsterdam
5. Start To Melt
6. Up Against The Wall
7. Paris 2004
8. Let's Call It Off (Single Mix)
9. The Chills
10. Roll The Credits
11. Poor Cow
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0886970624527
Label: Almost Gold
Manufacturer: Almost Gold
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Almost Gold
Release Date: 2007-02-06
Studio: Almost Gold
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Weird Offering
Comment: This CD offers proof that a collection of music can be simultaneously catchy, intriguing, and absolutely awful! I found "Young Folks" to be engaging when I first heard it played somewhere in public, and bought the entire CD based upon that impression. The disc was listenable for a week or so until I finally concluded that it was awkward almost to the extent that I wiped all traces of it from my music collection. (It shares that distinction with only one other CD, Mark Mothersbaugh's "Insomnia," from the late 1980's)
If the primary lyricist(s) were to partner with a more capable musical ensemble, the results might be more worthwhile. Maybe. (And stop that damned whistling. It's not innovative. It's not refreshing. It blows!)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Young Folks
Comment: Dreamy and beatnik with a cool throbbing tempo -- the ultimate song to drive your car to. This is a must have for any music library.
A Bjorn Winner!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unlistenable Garbage
Comment: This band is bad in a way that's hard to describe. In the indie world, there's no real premium on really good musical chops, so it's not fair to say that they're not really very good musicians -- though they aren't -- their problems are much deeper.
Their songs are poorly formed, weakly presented, and seemingly without motive. It's not even like listening to a high-school band. It's like listening to a rehearsal by a band that hopes to be able to play for a middle school dance, if they can just figure out a cool name.
This is a band with nothing to say that should learn not to say it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I hvae writer's block
Comment: Swedish pop group Peter Bjorn and John are apparently trying to confuse us, and for a brief time, it works.
Their third album "Writer's Block" has the misfortune to open on a rather saggy note, but fortunately hoists itself up for a blurry blend of indiepop and northern atmospheric synth. So straggle through the first two tracks, because the indiepop that follows is solid, multilayered and quite excellent.
It opens with a faint, atmospheric little track that sounds like Sigur Ros tuning up. Then suddenly it careens into nonstop guitar pop in "Object of My Affection," with drums pounding right over those steely riffs. "And you still can make sense/if you just show up and present an honest face/instead of that grin," Peter Morén sings happily.
Not only is it a lot simpler than the other songs, but I got a headache from those relentless drums and guitar. At that point I was groaning, anticipating a whole album of the same. But I was wrong.
Things start perking up with the shimmying, sunny indiepop of "Young Folks," which has some enchantingly feathery edges and constant whistling. The other songs have a similar mix of shimmery keyboard and solid indiepop -- thumpy little marches, swirling psychedelic hymns, gentle ballads blooming into driving guitarpop, folksy ballads, and the shimmering prettiness of "The Chills."
For your info, there is no Peter Bjorn -- it's actually "Peter, Bjorn and John," three Swedish guys who play the instruments and all provide vocals. And despite a couple of mediocre songs on "Writer's Block," these guys really know how to make great indiepop -- lots of northern wind and snow, and a delightfully sunny 1970s pop mentality.
There's plenty of ringing, peppy guitar and unstoppable bass from Morén and Björn Yttling, while John Eriksson provides some fast drumming as well. Yttling swaddles almost all the melodies in a hazy edge of soft, colourful synth, and turning some of them into bittersweet, chilly pop. Most of the songs are pretty upbeat, even with a bit of harmonica and whistling to remind us to be cheery.
Much of the album is about sort of ambiguous -- half of it seems to be about breaking up with a lover, and the other half is about how much you adore them. "Your tongue is sharp/but I miss the taste of it/You said time heals/there's not enough of it..." Moren sings in his slightly nasal voice. It's just a few songs after, "Hours seems to disappear/everyone is leaving -- I'm still with you."
"Writer's Block" has a couple tracks that don't quite fit in, but the overall album is a delicious blend of cheery pop melodies and blurry keyboard. Definitely a good listen.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great new band!
Comment: If you heard one of their songs on the radio and are debating whether it's worth buying the album......it's worth it. There are 4-5 very good songs on this one. Which isn't a bad ratio these days. Amsterdam, Chills, Young Folks and Paris 2004 among them.
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Editorial Reviews:
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As fine an album as this might be (and indeed it is), it serves a much higher purpose for which it must be immediately recognised. The twee Swedish trio have single-handedly tugged whistling out of popular music's pits where it was stuffed by German soft metal granddads The Scorpions back in the early 90s. It's not even particularly proficient whistling - it's a bit skewiff really, a little out of tune - but it's tacked onto the irresistibly bobbing, Velvet-Underground-via-The-Concretes infectiousness of "Young Folks", augmented by the warm-ember vocals of ex-Concrete Victoria Bergsman herself, and by association sounds fairly heroic. Accidentally anthemic, perhaps, but anthemic nonetheless. Result. Which sets a tone for the rest of this off-kilter lo-fi record. Draw a slightly wonky line from Simon & Garfunkel through to The Shins, making sure you take in the sharp Scandinavian indie-pop of the '90s (Wannadies, The Cardigans) and modern day peers (Radio Dept, Shout Out Louds) and you have a folk album that isn't really all that folk, swimming through its own dreamy washes of ambition. The drumming on tracks like "Let's Call It Off" and "Paris 2004" is so elementary you might as well add your own, but it keeps the intuitive, simplistic 60's beat melodies trickling steadily onwards. The underlying appeal is that things could snap like an elastic band at any moment, that things are beautifully limited. Less writers block, more loving the detail of your first chapter so much you have no inclination to move on. --James Berry
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