Album excerpts:

"Just the Past"

"I'm Losing My Mind"

"Last Night"

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Peter, Bjorn and John : Living Thing
released on Almost Gold Recordings/Startime International
reviewed by Gaspar Oliveira for GBH.tv

Everybody needs down time once in a while. Whether you're an unemployed stoner or a CEO father of five, the human brain (and, beyond that, the soul) naturally requires a few moments to rejuvenate, gather itself, and re-establish the internal balance that keeps us all from going crazy.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Peter Bjorn and John hasn't had a lot of down time lately. Thanks to the absurd staying power of "Young Folks," the Swedish trio spent almost all of 2008 on the road, rounding the globe multiple times, and rarely spending more than a week in the same time zone. In fact, the only breaks the band got came in the form of recording sessions, one each in New York, Los Angeles, and Stockholm, booked to record a proper follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2006 album, Writers Block (the band quietly released an instrumental album, Seaside Rock, late last year).

The fruit of these sessions, the ruefully titled Living Thing, sounds like the work of a band aware that it's losing its grip; it boasts song titles like "It Don't Move Me" and "I'm Losing My Mind" and meditations on the difficulty of connecting. For a band that owes most of its success to an upbeat song full of whistling and power-pop energy, Living Thing ought to be a career killer, a brutal downer in a year where people are looking for anything but that. But Living Thing will remind long-time fans of the trio's talents and hopefully solidify their fan base.

For example, people who fell in love with Writer's Block's inclusive, exciting production will find lots to like here too, provided they don't mind the greyer palette. Living Thing's songs are both strange and spare, like a bachelor's fridge: choruses feature things like the sound of paper tearing, or children's choirs recorded with contact mics ("Nothing to Worry About"); the percussion is rarely confined to drums, including everything from drum machine smacks and handclaps to muted keyboard tones, guitar picks, and warped-sounding bells; there is a strong sense of loneliness ingrained in these songs, but it's just as liable to come out sounding like dub as it is to come out sounding like new wave. This is the first time all three members have had a say in album production, and it speaks to the band's focus and unity that Living Thing sounds interesting rather than messy.

There isn't quite as much balance in the songwriting department (Peter Morén still handles the bulk of that), but both Björn Yttling and John Eriksson contribute more than they have in the past, singing about that toxic combination of isolation, exhaustion and overstimulation that pollutes the musician's road. It doesn't seem likely that Living Thing will keep Peter Bjorn and John on the road for as long as Writer's Block did, and one hopes they might actually be able to take some kind of a break in 2009. Play this album through a couple of times, and you'll be happy to wait for their next album, no matter how long it takes. It's certain to be worth the wait.

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