Peter, Bjorn & John - Seaside Rock

You will of course remember Peter Bjorn & John for the inescapably catchy ‘Young Folks’ of last year. The song propelled them into the consciousness of the indie scene within the UK and even helped them break America, making Kanye West of all people a fan. That song wasn’t wholly representative of ‘Writers Block’, which was in itself a very good album, musically diverse but still retaining the pop sensibility which was so evident in ‘Young Folks’. So it’s fair to say that the three must have felt significant pressure to deliver the goods from the label, fans and themselves with their next collective album (Peter released a solo album: if you haven’t heard it, you’re not missing out on much).

Except that erm, they don’t seem to. For ‘Seaside Rock’ is a very different beast altogether. It’s a concept, near instrumental album. Effectively their middle finger up at the expected pressure but not necessarily the mainstream attention they received. According to the press release, ‘Seaside Rock’ recounts the mundanity of growing up in tiny Swedish villages and joining teenage orchestras because hey, you played an instrument and that was what you did if you played an instrument. If this is truly what the album is based around then Peter, Bjorn and John grew up in undoubtedly the three most ethnically, musically diverse Swedish fishing villages that exist. This album is almost schizophrenic in the directions it takes, as if they’d been let loose in a studio and wanted to use every instrument they’d ever come across. Opening track ‘Inland Empire’ begins as something Trent Reznor would have created back when he actually had something to moan about, sinister sounding programmed drums clashing with foreboding piano notes, distorted bass and the most evil duck that ever existed quacking (when you hear it, you’ll know what we mean, honest) that builds into a tumultuous crescendo of noise. This then leads into ‘Say Something (Mukiya)’, a track which shuffles along contentedly, the steel drum and vocal harmonies creating a thoroughly laid back, pleasant vibe. ‘Flavour of the Season’ is ‘Moon Safari’ era Air, which follows into ‘Next Stop Bjursele’s reverb laden guitar and sparse orchestration.

The tracklisting seems to have been formulated with PB&J intent on ensuring the potential pitfalls of instrumental albums (come on, we’ve all drifted off a bit when listening to Mogwai or Godspeed) don’t happen here. Each track flits and zips off in different directions, yet somehow it works. In seemingly arsing around, Peter Bjorn & John have created an album that demands your attention and works all the better for breaking the unwritten musical rules. Album highlight ‘School of Kraut’ sounds like These New Puritans being commissioned to remix the Going for Gold theme tune while closer ‘At the Seaside’ is as far from ‘Inland Empire’ as you could get, acoustic guitars and harmonicas deployed in an example of the twee that Sweden is famous for, Los Camp without the sugar rush. That’s not to say the album is without its flaws, ‘Eriks Fishing Trip’ in particular is a waste of 3 minutes of your life and sounds as though it was tacked on to bolster track numbers. The clips of Swedish conversations detract from the music instead of adding to it also. Overall though, ‘Seaside Rock’ is one of the most inventive albums you’ll hear all year, instrumental or otherwise. Peter Bjorn & John deserve credit for making an album they wanted to and not bowing to any outside influences and in doing so created an album that sounds like the most fun they’ve had in years.