Link to the Show / Show Notes
I had high hopes for this release. Their first album had grown to be a favourite of mine, and despite the downright strangeness of their second album, it had some promising moments. Sadly, Living Thing hasn't delivered. It continues in a direction of unorthodoxy, narrowing in on a style that will cater to just a minority of their fans and alienate the rest.
Peter Bjorn & John have always been a minimalist band. Instrumentation has been scarce and subdued, directing the focus to the vocals. This technique works great when done well, but it's also very easy to mess up, as this album demonstrates. On Writer's Block, they always had a strong bass/drum rhythm that helped hold the songs together, but with Living Thing, they try to strip things back further, sometimes eliminating the rhythm altogether. Without this continuity, the songs fall apart. They feel bare and broken. What makes this so disappointing is that it is entirely a failure in execution. The songs are filled with good ideas and you can't help but think that done differently, they could have been great. It's strange to think that an artist got their own songs wrong, but that's the feeling I'm left with. And to be quite honest, I can't foresee a viable future for Peter Bjorn & John if they keep it up.
Living Thing - This song produced a strange mix of emotions when I first heard it. It was the third new song I'd listened to and after a minute, I was feeling disappointment that it was just as strange and uninteresting as the rest. It was far too dry and left nothing to grab on to. Then the chorus kicked in and I thought the vocals sounded pretty awesome. My hopes raised a little, but quickly faded as the song continued and never went anywhere. Then I struck on the idea that this song could be remixed. There was enough in it to make a really good song. Excitement welled. But of course, I have absolutely no talent for such remixing, so all notions of this idea quickly dissipated, along with any hope for the song. I was back where I started. Thoroughly disappointed.
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