On Peter, Bjorn and John’s 2009 album Living Thing, the Stockholm trio traded in the whistle-happy, ear-worm-y hooks of instant classics like “Young Folks” for fractured hip-hop rhythms. They’re changing things up once more for their new album Gimme Some, which is streaming in its entirety over at NPR. Head here to listen.
In his 7-out-of-10 review, contributor Marc Hogan praises the group for their never-ending quest to keep reinventing themselves. “Gimme Some has a punk-octane velocity that sometimes leads to bitterness — toward critics (the Buzzcocks thrash of ‘Breaker Breaker’), Swedish royals (R.E.M. jangler ‘[Don’t Let Them] Cool Off’), and pessimists (krautrock night-drive ‘I Know You Don’t Love Me’). Sometimes it still leads to romantic melancholy — burial ballad ‘May Seem Macabre’ or punk-pop sleeper ‘Lies.'”
“But even when trading whistling for cowbell,” Hogan continues, “There’s something these three songwriters always remember: ‘You can’t, can’t count on a second chance.’ If the least they do is keep revealing new shades of the familiar, it’s worth sticking around and seeing this band through.”
