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Peter Bjorn and John: Young Folks
by Mike Diver
See yourself, ten years from now, slumped in a sofa staring vacant-eyed at whatever fancy television has replaced the already out-of-date HD screens being sold to us today via inferior appliances. See yourself mindlessly consuming images of nostalgia, supplemented by sound bites from the time’s c-listers, offered by one of those clips shows –_ Remember 2006_ or something.
Here’s Harry Redknapp, recalling his Portsmouth team’s stupendous start to the 2006-07 Premiership season – I know it’s a ridiculously implausible flight of fantasy, but stay with me. Here he is, jowl wobbling about like a cut-adrift buoy on a sea of jelly and blubber, saying something or other about the eighteen points from eighteen his team accumulated, a feat that left the larger teams floundering until December dawned. A tune – whistled, drifting sweetly on the air like a siren’s call – cuts through the commentary of LuaLua’s hat trick against Wigan like a proverbial hot knife; you turn to your loved one. “Heeeey… remember this? Song of the summer, this…”
Attention drifts away from another head-and-shoulder shot of some current celebrity, back to 2006 and Peter, Bjorn and John’s breakthrough single, a song so effortlessly catchy that even tuberculosis would struggle to spread its touch as swiftly if let loose on an assembly hall of non-immunised seven-year-olds. ‘Young Folks’ floats like the most wonderful standalone cloud against a perfect blue sky, one within which you can see every face of your family, a bulldozer, Great Uncle Bulgaria and the Pink Panther – anything your imagination sees fit to manifest, basically. Play it in a room of strangers and watch them smile stupidly at one another, tapping feet and allowing eyes to twinkle, defences down. Play it while home alone and dance to skittering bongos like a Thai beach hippie completely at one with the Earth, albeit without any chemical assistance.
“Yes dear, never heard about them again, though, did we?” That’s the problem with such an immediately impressive single release – whatever comes afterwards is unlikely to match its impression, and in Peter Bjorn and John’s case this could – let’s slip back from our future setting, for now – be the case. There’s little on this single’s parent album, Writer’s Block’, that is possessed with an equal charm, a comparably universal appeal. This is a precedent unlikely to be surpassed, but who cares? The dual vocals – delivered by Peter and Victoria Bergsman, formerly of The Concretes – are both deadpan and sensuous, emotive yet muddled, broken but beautiful. The melody, the melody… if you don’t hear this as pop at its most perfect, then frankly your idea of accessible music must equal Wolf Eyes using missile launchers as percussive instruments while Thurston Moore grinds terrifying white noise out of archaic guitar pedals and a washboard. _‘Young Folks’ represents the pinnacle of this summer season’s release schedule, as comfortable on a Radio 1 breakfast show, wedged between Rihanna and McFly, as it is on a late-evening specialist show beside any up-and-coming indie act of the moment.
Get that? Get it.
And back to the future: “Yeeeeah, but it made that summer seem that bit sunnier, didn’t it? Aaaah, the Michael Carrick injury… bad luck, that.”
From the archive
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this is seriously lovely
i love this review as well.
some say the album's not as good but they are WRONG.
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.
I've said it before but the whistling is out of tune. Argh, it burns.
Flowery piece of turd as well. The aural equivalent of purple prose.
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When A Review Starts Like That You Know It's Gonna Get A 9
Great song. Just brilliant.
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In my Top 3
singles of the year so far this. The album's a cracker too.
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other
two singles?
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i know ur a scummer, mr.diver...
but even you know this season belongs to pompey. the lack of signings is a smokescreen for ronaldinho. your intention may have been to belittle my beloved club, but 18 points from 18 is not implausible...ahem.
enjoy viafara by the way :)
a poor man's carlton palmer... -
and to the chap above
who says the whistling is out of tune - for somebody who likes the libertines im surprised the *ever so slight* moments where it wobbles out of tune bother you.
I suppose the tape hiss on Iron and Wine records bothers you too...:)
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PLAY UP
POMPEY.
I live far enough away from pompey john not to hear him banging on about us, but close enough to see him every so often.
cool, innit.
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Good point
But for such a clean sounding pop record, such a blatant, sloppy production mistake is unforgiveable. What angers me more is that people don't care - It's just fucking UNACCEPTABLE.
The Libertines often went out of tune (I hate the third track on the album), most of the time it was counter balanced by raw energy and emotion as if they, you know, meant it. Like when the Spice Girls were around. They couldn't sing a note but they broke records, didn't they?
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I actually find it quite hard...
to contemplate how good this song is; it just seems rhiddled with everythin that makes music perfect.
Shall make a desperate attempt today to buy it from local record shop but may inevitably fail and be forced to resort to the internet. -
I think it is a crime
to talk about this song and something as hideous as football in the same artical. Bad review
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my season tickets
was four rows in front of his in the fratton end back in the good old days.
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Tubercolosis?
I'm thinking that line didn't come out of the press kit. Fantastic review. I suppose no single in the world could live up to that. I'm going to enjoy this when it makes its way to the next Aquarium Drunkard podcast. Until then, just fond memories.
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great song, great review
however when TVOTR release Province this songs position, if it holds it, of best single of 2006 will be usurped. dammit.
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Yes.
While football isn't hideous, talking about it in a review like you're someone who hasn't forgotten the World Cup and therefore you're a bit alternative (in these circles anyway) and thus cool IS hideous. Very much so.
All geniune and genuinely good arts reviewers shouldn't have time for idle hobbies. That's the price you pay.
Unless you're Pat Nevin. But you're not Pat Nevin.
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nah, this is single of the summer
guillemots' made up love song is single of the year.
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but made up love song was released in summer wasnt it?
so surely it takes both titles then? or are you gonna lay some 'late spring' crap on me?
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from last night
they do seem to have a few more good songs to go with this
but i haven't heard the album
they're quite affable really
fun times
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.....
has anyone else heard that other Swedish band called Im From Barcelona? Their forthcoming single 'We're From Barcelona' is another mighty catchy summer pop number in the same kinda vein as Peter Bjorn and John.
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this is okay. nice.
nothing more.
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I....
was going to give this one a miss the first time round as wasn't blown away. However after everybody else's comments I may have to lend my ears to it for a better listen.
Made up love song has the cathy line which is why they milk it so much. The song as a whole is a tad lazy. -
it wouldnt sound right
if the whistling were in tune. promise. x
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I think
this is a lovely lovely song... it might not cahnge your life, but it will make it happier for a finite period!
Me likes it.
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I think the whistling
isn't THAT out of tune. Not gratingly-so in my opinion anyway, and I'm a stickler for correct pitch!!!
After reading your post I was expecting dogs to howl for miles around, but it's not that bad in my opinion.
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just who's out of tune?
IT IS DElIBERATELY OUT OF TUNE! A kind of alienation device that fits the the nature of the song (have a listen to the lyrics and watch the video). Postmodernism, man . . .dig it?
Lots of artists have been doing it. Not really new however, think of jazz and blues - you can mess with the rythm ("swing") and choose sour notes occasionally.
I assure you it did not "slip through" production.
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