Peter Moren - The Last Tycoon

Taking a sabbatical from his day job as part of Swedish spook-pop superstars Peter, Bjorn and John, Peter Morén releases a solo album of intimate, folk-influenced songs. Largely written and recorded over several years while touring with PB&J, ‘The Last Tycoon’ is a glimpse into Peter’s individual talents as a songwriter. The title is lifted from Elia Kazan’s 1976 film, itself an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final, unfinished novel. Nobel laureate Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay, so we must conclude that Peter knows all about culture. Tempting though it may be to draw comparisons between Peter’s songwriting and the film’s plot of an executive losing the, ahem, plot, any hypothesising would be tenuous. ‘The Last Tycoon’ (film) is about the impossibility of the American dream; ‘The Last Tycoon’ (album) is about failing love affairs and working as a music supply teacher (on ‘Social Competence’: ‘when I do my best to get a minute’s rest there’s always someone trying to exhaust me completely’).

There is less variation than PB&J’s genre-hopping ‘Writer’s Block’, as Peter relies on domesticated folk. Mainly backed by an acoustic guitar, a medley of instrumentation adds a homemade quality throughout the album, including handclaps, theremin, piano and violin. Surrounded by a warm crackling, ‘Old Love’ is like a near forgotten memory rediscovered in an attic. ‘Missing Link’ is a summer afternoon daydream, while ‘Twisted’ spins out over a music box piano riff. Single ‘Reel to Real’ begins like a jaunty round the campfire song which briefly hits a dark interlude of tolling tubular bells (‘who wants to be real? Nobody I know’). All charming stuff.

Over ten tracks, Peter’s vocals become tiring as they strain to reach the higher notes: forty minutes is a long time to spend in the company of one closely microphoned Swede. He seems like such a lovely gent, always well turned out, that you just want him to succeed. And however appealing it is to speak of Peter Morén as on the same level as Leonard Cohen or Robyn Hitchcock, the comparison simply isn’t true. The songs are gentle reflections on his life, composed in snatched moments between band commitments. ‘The Last Tycoon’ does confirm what anybody who fell head over heels with ‘Young Folks’ already knows (so that’s just about everybody, then): Peter is a talented and versatile young man. ‘The Last Tycoon’ is a pleasing diversion until the PB&J follow-up to ‘Writer’s Block’.