CD Reviews

Peter Bjorn and John | Seaside Rock

Almost Gold/Star Time | 2008

By SAM UBL | October 1, 2008

2.0 Stars

A humble album I would’ve dug much more a few years back — when most indie rock couldn’t figure out how not to be overbearing and instrumental albums offered a refreshing escape from the tyranny of pussified vocalists like Ben Gibbard and what’s-his-name from Interpol — Seaside Rock amounts to a log of underhashed production ideas from the test kitchen. It would seem that on the heels of their trademark “Young Folks” (a horizontal hit this correspondent has encountered on some very unlikely dance floors) Peter Bjorn and John developed a following enthusiastic enough to justify the indulgence. I’m not complaining because, as I said, this is innocuous stuff, all wide-panning Morricone-esque scenery that won’t disrupt your dinner. And even if I think it’s a waste of polycarbonate plastic, that’s no guarantee fans will. Middle child Björn Yttling moonlights and then some as a producer for such Swedish pop lights as Lykke Li, and the orchestra-stab-punctuated new-wave vamp “School of Kraut” does indeed feel like half of an equation: skilled backing band in search of funky hip singer. As with lots of instrumental rock albums, the music tries to tell stories without words — “Needles and Pills” cuts a fife-propelled arc across Scandinavian verdure. It’s really pointless. And somewhat nice.

Power-surge pop
I was expecting a restrained, polite set from the super-hyped Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John.
Populous With Short Stories | Drawn in Basic
Fans of Ben Gibbard will savor the insistent charm of Short Stories’ voice: a nasal but deftly melodic boy croon with a flair for neatness and a soft spot for slightly overdone harmonizing.
2009: The top 10 in pop music
Hmm, lots of women, a few old dudes, and some African banjo (not to be confused with Steve Martin's Hollywood banjo).
Review: Sherlock Holmes
In its own way an ideal holiday blockbuster for the moderately educated, the new light-footed overhaul of Sherlock Holmes is three parts self-satisfied mixer to one part hard storytelling, and if anything, the film's popular trailers should have deterred you from expecting strong drink.
Big starts
I kick off my highlights of 2009 with praise for a theater company that has just finished its inaugural season: The Legacy Theater Company, founded by former City Theater artistic director Steve Burnette.
2009 had some redeeming qualities - really
Let's get serious: For many Portlanders, 2009 was a crap year.
In with the new
This year represented a bittersweet end to a miserable decade for the nation.
Ten years of great sports
Moments after Adam Vinatieri's field goal split the uprights as the clock expired in the Louisiana Superdome on February 3, 2002, the streets of Boston were in bedlam. Drunk people dangled from trees and hung off lampposts. Motorists leaned on their horns. I saw a guy hug a cop
Review: A Single Man
Christopher Isherwood published his novel about a middle-aged homosexual grieving for a lost lover, the frank depiction of gay desire scandalized some readers.
Fourth-estate follies, 2009 edition
Between the rise of the Web, the ADD-addling of America, the fragmentation of any national political consensus, and the devastated economy, working in the press can feel a bit like manning the Titanic — and this year, the entire industry seemed to teeter on the edge of oblivion.
Review: It's Complicated
It's complicated, and so are my feelings about Nancy Meyer's predictable and overlong boomer-bait rom-com.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Peter Bjorn and John, Peter Bjorn and John, Interpol, More

| More

ARTICLES BY SAM UBL

PETER BJORN AND JOHN | SEASIDE ROCK | October 01, 2008
It’s really pointless. And somewhat nice.

YOUNG JEEZY | THE RECESSION | September 10, 2008
Remember, Jeezy disdains rappers, just like the teen movie anti-hero who decries the phoniness of movie stars.

FRIENDLY FIRES | September 02, 2008
The Hertfordshire trio’s debut full-length cobbles from some of dance rock’s silliest (and sappiest) party mavens, among them Talking Heads, Prince, and the Rapture.