Peter Bjorn and John - “Second Chance”
So. Due to some ill-advised Tumblr-ing and movie-watching last night and the kind of day at the office that will make me appreciate the next four days off that much more (pointless mini-vacation, y’all!!), today’s Writings At Popcorn Noises are later than the usual and more filled with conspiracy theories. Whoa whoa whoa, what am I talking about? Well you know that new Peter Bjorn And John album? The one that you’re not that excited about because the first song was just kinda ‘meh’ and besides they are so totally 2006 anyway? They’ve put out another song-with-video recently and, my friends, I am telling you: there are some mysterious doings afoot in the land of Peanut Butter And Jelly.
Notice how eerily similar the “Second Chance” and “Breaker Breaker” videos are: the black background, the live-performance setup, the 3-camera technique (there’s Peter Cam, Bjorn Cam, and Band Cam…poor John), and the odd movements that catch you off guard at first but then reveal themselves to be a clever video editing trick. Last time, it was the double-speed film that suggested PB&J had learned to play the tune at half speed, but this time it goes even further off the deep end: the “Second Chance” clip is backwards, yo! These guys recorded a song, learned to play it in reverse, filmed themselves doing so while having stuff dumped on them, and then flipped the footage so it kinda-sorta makes visual sense. Have you ever listened to a regular song backwards? It’s an unpalatable mess of gobbledegook (apologies to fans of Pullhair Rubeye, if they exist) and trying to mime playing an instrument along with it would be an even more difficult task than trying to equal the chic pop appeal of “Young Folks.” This is ether the world’s most gifted, most dastardly, or most terminally bored band.
Though we may never know which of those adjectives most aptly applies to Peter Bjorn And John’s video-making skills, I believe based on the content of “Second Chance” that we can imprint a firm check mark in the “Jaded” box when it comes to songwriting. Like “Breaker,” this is another slice of ostensibly stylish, slightly distorted pop-rock that is not offensive to the ears per se, but which doesn’t exactly worm its way past the hammer, anvil, and stirrup for long either. Not that big a deal, sure, but what about those lyrics? “You can’t, can’t count on a second chance / a second chance will never be found / you can’t, can’t count on a second try / the second try will never come ‘round,” goes the chorus, a near perfect self-pitying reflection of “Breaker”s punkified fist-shaking. Maybe that 5.5 review really was a painful career-deadener or lightning really doesn’t ever strike twice or—just maybe—fame really is the ficklest of lovers. Whatever the reason, these three Swedes have gotten it into their heads that their 15 minutes are up and they’re unhappy about it to say the least.
Normally, the appropriate thing for an artist to do in this situation is retreat. Maybe try out a solo project, do a covers record, or get all down on yourself but disguise it as a break-up album—anything except face the sad, ugly truth. Not only do PB&J seem to be ignoring these conventions, but in doing so I predict they are slowly creating The Most Modular Album The World Has Ever Seen! Every song is basically the same! Every video spins off the same premise! Shuffle, scatter, trim, and trade all you want! There is no beginning and there is no end! It’s an album about wishing you were bulletproof that might actually be indestructible! Oh, what’s that, Mr. Tastemaking Critic? “It’s homogenous and predictable?” Like, duh! We totally planned it that way! Haven’t you seen these ridiculous videos?! You’ve done your worst to us and now there’s nothing you can say that could possibly poke another hole in our life raft! We’re floating on mesh, ya dig?
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.
