Peter Bjorn and John ready to pop again with ‘Living Thing’
January 20th, 2009 by Leilani Polk in News
Unlike the rest of the world, I caught on to Swedish indie pop trio Peter Bjorn and John late, a little while after the band’s hit single, “Young Folks,” became the most overplayed song of ‘07. The catchy, saccharine ditty off PBJ’s 2006 album, Writer’s Block, made it onto commercials by Budweiser, AT&T, Napster and Banana Republic, into the soundtracks of shows like Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy, and popped up in various other random places — a Chanel fashion show, FIFA 08 (a football video game), complilations like Acoustic 07, and in the film 21. And “Young Folks” was covered by all-manner of musicians — Germany singer Nena covered it in German for the movie Vollidiot with Oliver Pocher and Stephan Remmler, Japanese singer Shugo Tokumaru performed it in ‘06 for a Cokemachineglow fantasy covers podcast, Kanye West sampled “Young Folks” in two separate tracks (one of the same name), James Blunt played it on BBC Radio1’s Live Lounge and KLLC’s Now & Zen Fest, and Pete Yorn likes to bust it out at live shows.
So what does it all mean? Nothing, except that PBJ has finally announced the release date of its first official studio follow-up to Writers Block.
I, along with what seems to be most other music writers, am not counting 2008’s limited, vinyl- and digital-only release, Seaside Rock, due to its non-availability, though I’m also not counting it because it was a damn baffling album even to me, a person who’s pretty open-minded when it comes to music that’s generally inaccessible to mainstream audiences.
But I digress.
Three years after Writer’s Block, PBJ is finally set to release its latest, Living Thing (Almost Gold/StarTime International), on March 31. The tracklist is as follows:
1. The Feeling
2. It Don’t Move Me
3. Just The Past
4. Nothing To Worry About
5. I’m Losing My Mind
6. Living Thing
7. I Want You!
8. Lay It Down
9. Stay This Way
10. Blue Period Picasso
Here’s hoping the first single is fantastic, but not so fantastic that every corporation with hip marketers use it to sell stuff.
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