Living Thing + Seaside Rock

Import only two CD pressing of the Swedish trio's 2009 album includes their 2008 instrumental album, Seaside Rock, as a bonus disc (originally released as download and vinyl only). There was always going to be chatter as to how Peter Bjorn and John would follow up their album Writer's Block, a true pop phenomenon. Would they try to replicate their earlier success? Or go out of their way to release a willfully difficult new album? In actual fact, what they have done is a bit of both - and neither-all at the same time. Bolstered by the band's production, the first taster of the album, 'Lay it Down', was a delightfully off-kilter riposte, a jaunty flying-V in the faces of people who thought they'd had the band all figured out, with a harsh, treated vocal lifelessly intoning the threatening refrain before abruptly giving way to an anthem, full-bodied sing-along. The rest of the album walks a similar tightrope of melody and mayhem. Living Thing pulses with life, it is bursting at the seams with energy and vitality, and shot through with warmth and excitement and wonder. Wichita. 2009.