Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks (Wichita)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
PURCHASE FROM ROCKFEEDBACK DIGITAL DOWNLOADSWould they have a deal if Bjorn was called Steve? Read it - Peter, Steve and John. I wouldn't care so much. It'd be like listening to a mate's band ('yeah, I, er, really like the... beat'). Bjorn, though - whatever he does, he's the clincher. It's because of him I start listening to a song full of whistling and bongos.
"We don't care about the young folks talking 'bout the young style / We don't care about the old folks talking 'bout the old style too..." - quite the manifesto. It's also, as it happens, a lie - whilst they're right in that the 'young style', in terms of being particularly sonically cutting edge, isn't their main concern, they are very much interested in the ways of the past. Melodies this gentile haven't been around in decades, and it's a good job they're as superlative as they are, because you can only ever get away with whistling and bongo playing if the song is a super strong one. Mike & The Mechanics found that out.
Gasp, that whistling bit is, quite quite brilliant. It doesn't matter that the chorus is full of lies, because funnily enough it's the least memorable bit of the song. That whistled refrain, the dull bass plucks of the verse - they're what you'll take away from 'Young Folks', that, and Victoria Bergsman's sexily shoddy attempt at an English accent. To demand an album full of melancholia this sublime might be a little ambitious. Instead, we'll keep our fingers crossed, and our lips whistling, in hope.
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