Peter Bjorn And John, Falling Out
A collection of bright pop tunes that beg you to love them.
Conflicts and disagreements are necessary “in order to grow and move on,” according to Stockholm's Peter Bjorn and John, a proposition they seek to illustrate over the course of these 10 songs. Not that you could disagree for long with their seductive blend of innocence and experience. Falling Out glitters with bright pop tunes that beg you to love them, but also stretches out into richer, grander structures shimmering with strings and keyboards. It doesn't hurt that Peter Moren's vocals echo something of the appealing vulnerability of Neil Finn from Crowded House, alongside which the band manage to cram in references to most of pop history — a glimpse of the Undertones in "Teen Love" (itself a song by fellow-Swedes the Concretes), some Byrds and Tom Petty in "All These Expectations," and hints of the Cure and the Jam in "It Beats Me Every Time." But the trio conjure a whimsical, dreamy quality that lifts them above being mere copyists.
