Peter Bjorn and John
Gimme Some
Startime
March 28

By Michael Walsh

I’ve found that the Swedish are good at a couple of things: making dreary existential films and creating some of the world’s best indie pop rock.

I use the word ‘pop’ loosely. I find it a degrading word in our homeland. The pop I refer to are the simple yet catchy hooks, riffs and words that make Peter Bjorn and John such an addictive thing.

Gimme Some is the sixth album from the trio of musicians and quite possibly my favorite since their highly acclaimed 2006 release Writer’s Block that helped put Peter Bjorn and John on a more popular map than they might have been accustomed to.

Follow-up album Seaside Rock saw the band divert into a strange, instrumental-driven area that would not sit well with the folks who loved singing along to Writer’s Block‘s “Young Folks.”

But this latest release will hit fans looking for more of that same joyful sound that might have been the reason they fell in love with Peter Morén, Bjorn Yttling and John Eriksson in the first place. Quick blasts start the album in the right place with “Tomorrow Has to Wait,” “Dig a Little Deeper” and the album’s first single, “Second Chance,” leading things off.

My favorite song off the album might be “May Seem Macabre” and it’s not only because I absolutely love the way the Swedish say the word ‘macabre’ when speaking English. The thumping and chilled out bass helps slow the album down after the preceding minute and a half “Breaker Breaker” attempts to blow it up with energy.

Gimme Some is short. With only one song breaking the five-minute barrier, your most recent Swedish indie pop rock experience is over in a heartbeat. It’s a good heartbeat though and even the quick tracks impress.

But that same shortness might be what Peter Bjorn and John are better suited for in the first place. While they’ve done it in their past, they aren’t often going to dazzle your mind with extremely involved and lengthened piece that runs past the six or seven minute marks. And it’s okay.

What they are capable of doing is creating likable and diverse albums, where quick bursts of almost punked-out rock like “Black Book” can drop into the subdued “Down Like Me” before picking the pace right back up while closing the album out.

Something about Peter Bjorn and John just hook me. I don’t know if it’s the unique sounding voices of Swedes like Peter Morén that is the result of the band singing for an English audience or the quick bursts of catchy pop rock that gets me invested. It’s probably both.