Popcorn Noises

Peter Bjorn and John - “Breaker Breaker”

This song is the first available bit of new material from Peter Bjorn and John’s latest album—Gimme Some, out in March—so my self-inflated music critic-y instincts tell me to glance backwards for context and preparation. I would say something like this: Falling Out was pleasantly poppy but a bit too indistinct, Writer’s Block was a near-ideal confluence of great songs and interesting production, and Living Thing leaned too heavily on production mostly at the expense of compelling songs (it was just so bare and clangy), so we should expect the Swedish trio to swing back toward straightforward accessibility in order to regain some goodwill. It’s a logical move and one the band themselves have copped to in talking about Gimme Some (John called it a “pure pop-rock album”), but according to Peter on “Breaker Breaker,” I’m “trying to explain something [I] haven’t got a clue about.”

That’s right, PB&J have aimed their punky, pugilistic new song at people like me (not actually me; people with big audiences) who write about and ‘critique’ music because it would seem they’re not 100% pleased with some of the things people say. No other reading of the song makes quite as much sense to me. If it were about a girl and the idea of rejecting her before she had the chance to reject him (“before you break my heart”), Peter’s vengeful threats of breaking arms and noses would be completely inappropriate and kind of disturbing. His annoyance at the explaining and “riddles” could suggest some silly pretentious dude at a party a la Living Thing’s “Lay It Down,” but then the idea of heartbreak doesn’t really fit. And besides, why would he be cut “like a knife” by words from someone he didn’t even know unless they were talking about him and his work? Musical references scattered across the verses take a stab at self-awareness (singing songs about singing songs as a defense against people who write about songs) to make sure we understand this is about a band. “Before you make a sound / and try to turn us down […] I’m gonna break your nose and sing about it.” Also notice the joke implanted in the album cover: nullifying reviews and riffing on Roger Ebert’s monochrome critical discourse by giving themselves ‘three thumbs up.’

The hard part about all this is that, on its own, a short little blast of a song like “Breaker” doesn’t produce a statement that lives up to itself. It’s fast enough to feel manic and unhinged while the band’s innate sense of pop still comes through and all the instruments have the kind of overdriven buzz to them that PB&J generally make good use of. But if Gimme Some turned out to be nothing but a collection of these numbers, I’d probably have to make some sort of Hives-related joke and leave it at that. Generally, I have more faith in this band than to write them off completely based on a minute and a half of music, having seen them produce enough dazzling indie bubblegum to consider “Breaker” something of an outlier and an odd choice for a first single. They may yet earn the three thumbs they’ve preemptively scored for themselves, but it’ll take ditching most of the defensive ‘statements’ and actually honing in closer on the things they do best.