Peter Bjorn and John don't need to whistle to move you. Their last effort, Living Thing, may not have grabbed listeners as relentlessly as "Young Folks," but its standouts "It Don't Move Me" and "Nothing to Worry About," with their fusion of hip-hop beats and synthpop, at least felt contemporary. There were a few kinks: In its effort to sound current, the album occasionally overreached. Employing drum machines, tribal rhythms and doo-wop harmonies, it got bogged down in ill-conceived genre explorations and felt out-of-sync with what fans had come to expect from the hook-and-verse trio.

On their sixth full-length, Gimme Some, Peter Bjorn and John strip back to the bare necessities (aside from one unforgettable cowbell), focus on their core strengths and find themselves sonically closer their canonized breakthrough, Writer's Block. It's a music aficionado's manual to the past 40 years of rock. There's surf-inspired guitar breaks, power pop arrangements, punkish antiphony, New Wave-sounding drums, and trademark noisepop fuzz bass. What could have turned into a dizzying scrapbook is, instead, a harmonious, rock-centric collection — thanks in part to guidance from the Cardigans' veteran producer Per Sunding. Sunding especially refines on the lush single, "Second Chance." Pairing punchy guitar riffs… read more »