- Artist
- Peter Bjorn And John
- Label
- Wichita
- Release date
- 19th February 2007
- Genre
- Indie
This lo-fi post-punk gem from the north Sweden-hailing trio deserved a much wider audience than it found first time around, hence this inevitable re-release.
The band won't thank it for being suggested but Writer's Block is what amounts to a concept album about the trials and tribulations of relationships falling apart. While this is doubtless too simplistic it nevertheless gives you an idea... the songs lament good times gone and which are now mere memories, such as Paris 2004. Or Up Against A Wall, dark lyrics set to a happy, almost light-hearted tune.
Then there's Let's Call It Off, the subject matter being what it says on the tin but delivered in a wonderfully lugubrious manner, all twanging guitar and infectious rhythms. The icing on the cake, though, is the album's big single, Young Folks, best described as "wearily funky" and combining groovy bass, a catchy whistled motif and some beautifully crestfallen vocals from guest singer Victoria Bergsman (formerly of The Concretes), all slathered with so much reverb that it could have been recorded in a cathedral.
A great album.
