Sunday

Peter, Björn and John – Gimme Some album review

“Gimme Some” cover art is simple foreshadowing

Peter Björn and John’s sixth album, titled “Gimme Some” involves some hard-learned lessons about break ups and mistakes in love and moving on. That’s where “Tomorrow Has to Wait” and “Second Chance” come in. The two tracks need “Dig a Little Deeper,” to round out the trio of songs that have a distinct sound, more unique than the rest of the album. Imagine guitar backgrounds as light as cotton-candy. They are ear-pleasing, sing along kind of tracks that get inside of your head and live there because you’d know them anywhere. The songs of movie trailers (face it, they’re responsible for “Young Folks”) and television commercials.

You can get into “Gimme Some” and ride back in time. I couldn’t stop the ‘80s and ’90s movie montage from it’s progression in my head.  Scenes from the movie Footloose (when “Eyes” came on) and Sixteen Candles were most definitely included in the mental montage at some point.

Gimme’s songs have vibes are trained on the relationship world. There are tracks toting lyrics with some of the stuff that break ups should be made of and the same recipe people use for getting over someone they liked, loved or just got done with, without the whining.

PB&J just keep it real with the kind of songs one might adopt for their life anthem or personal theme song, lifted by the sound and dynamics, but strengthened by the message, “You can’t, can’t count a second chance; a second chance will never be found,” from “Second Chance.” Words to live by, that’s true about life, but here, you get to learn your lesson with some smooth vocals in the background. Even if you’re not bettering yourself, you’re still singing. What’s more, if you don’t pick up the lyrics perfectly, PB&J give you a little something (a call and response or an ooh-wee-ooh or two) to grab onto.

One of the Swedish band’s influences, Per Sunding of Eggstone is named as a producer on the album. Once you pass the third track, the songs pick up a drum tempo that sticks until the final track, but the sounds of the guitar won’t leave you lonely and neither will vocalist Peter Morén’s voice.

You want PB&J to give you some, something else, but you’re not completely upset that what you were waiting on was in the first three tracks. The dreamy vocals and guitar are an awesome pair (like, peanut butter and jelly, who would have thought) and drum the drums complete the package take care of you, especially at the tail end of some tracks that ride out sans-vocals, allowing  a deeper appreciation of the instrumental mix.

Put this on when you want to sing about love, life and filling in the blanks.