Just like those guys who found the dead Bigfoot corpse out there in North Carolina, another discovery caused a large amount of skepticism and controversy of the past few days. Well, at least, it did over the weekend at my home.

For you see, gentle (or not-so-gentle) reader, I played Peter Bjorn And John’s newest song entitled Inland Empire to all those who wished to give it a listening-to. The results of the auditioning, when I told them it was a PB&J song, ranged from incredulity to outrage. Either they figured I had been suckered into downloading some other band’s song which had been inappropriately tagged, or they just didn’t believe me. Where was the jaunting whistling, the hooky chorus, the dulcet plushness of Peter Morén’s voice? The results of listening to the song, as someone had quite eloquently once said, had BLOWN THEIR MINDS.

Though I can’t discount my guests’ reactions as anything but normal, considering the circumstances. After all, Peter Bjorn And John’s next album is going to be completely instrumental, trading in their lyrical savoir faire in order to dabble in the manipulation of mood through musical arrangements. And, as such, Inland Empire does justice to their objective, creating a hard, gritty atmosphere which takes you by surprise if only because it’s so uncharacteristic of the material we’re most familiar with. Nonetheless, only true Writer’s Block haters could dismiss the Swedes’ musical competence, and it is with masterful confidence that their compositional skills take centre stage in this forbidding track, which ominously stretches itself like a looming storm cloud. There’s just enough exotic mandolin to add a dash of mystery as it slinks through percussive jolts of understated violence and glowering warbles of menacing guitars. It’s the icy wail of the sax-ornamented conclusion amidst a seriously wanton guitar solo which seals the disquieting effulgence, and confirms to everyone, even the doubters, that this is one hell of a song.

MP3: Peter Bjorn And John - Inland Empire

www.peterbjornandjohn.com
myspace.com/peterbjornandjohn

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am and is filed under download, free, MP3, Music, peter bjorn and john. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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