Anxious longtime fans of Peter Bjorn and John can breathe a sigh of relief. When the band released “Writer’s Block,” the album’s joyful music, complete with whistling and clapping, attracted large numbers of fans to the band’s ranks. Then, right out of left field came “Living Thing,” an album that basically abandoned everything that people loved about them and was, quite frankly, weird.
Needless to say, fans of Peter Bjorn and John have been awaiting “Gimme Some” with armies of butterflies in their stomachs. Luckily, the band’s newest album is a return to what it does best ““ happy, diverting pop-rock. And while the album is a solid collection of songs, every song sounds a little like every other song on the album. As a result, the album has a hard time holding the listener’s attention because there are rarely any changes of pace.
The album starts off happy and enthusiastic with “Tomorrow Has to Wait,” an upbeat song about living in the moment. The snappy electric guitars, rambunctious drums and echoing vocals make the listener entirely aware that the band is back with a vengeance.
From that point on, with virtually no exceptions, the album takes the form of a ragtag collection of eternally upbeat songs. Many of these songs are about decidedly non-upbeat topics. The standout “Lies” is perhaps one of the most upbeat songs on the album and is about a man who ruined a relationship by refusing to lie.
“Second Chance” begins with triumphant cowbell that would easily cure Christopher Walken’s fever a la the classic “Saturday Night Live” skit. Don’t let the title mislead you. This song is about how someone will not be getting a second chance. The song is so joyful, however, that you think that the situation isn’t entirely grave.
In fact, in some moments, the album almost sounds like a message to the listener. The song “(Don’t Let Them) Cool Off” might as well be the mission statement for the album as a whole. The happy, head music just doesn’t stop. The listener doesn’t have many opportunities to take a breather before being plunged into the next high-energy guitar riff.
Most of the songs on the album are happy and catchy. Unfortunately, since many of the songs (in fact, almost the whole album) sound very similar, this album is much better listened to as a collection of singles than as a cohesive album.
While rare, the moments of down-tempo pop-rock music were the highlights of the album (though they didn’t last very long). “Down Like Me” and “I Know You Don’t Love Me” both start off refreshingly slowly (relative to the frantic speed of most of the other songs on the album) with half-melancholy vocals. Unfortunately, instead of making the most of the refreshing down-tempo moments, the band appears uncomfortable with them and abandons them, revving up to the album’s standard breakneck speed as the songs progress.
While the album certainly isn’t an exercise in exploring the band’s musical range, what’s here is done well. There is not one song on this album that’s notably bad. And as “Living Thing” proved, experimental music does not always work out well, so the band’s choice to return to its comfort zone may end up being wise.
For those in the market for an album to blast while dancing on a rooftop somewhere, this is the perfect album. It’s roughly 40 minutes straight of in-your-face, aggressive pop-rock. Chances are, however, that fans of this album will find themselves attracted to two or three specific songs in particular and listen to those more than the album as a whole because, quite frankly, once you’ve heard 15 minutes of “Gimme Some,” you’ve got the idea.