Peter Bjorn & John | Gimme Some

Most Likely To: make you abandon your pretentions about words like “derivative” through sheer force of catchiness.

Peter Bjorn and John have built their career on an ability to write songs so effortlessly catchy that they make you wonder: if it’s as easy as they make it sound, why isn’t all pop music this uncomplicatedly good? Even on 2009’s misguided Living Thing, where the songs’ cores were masked by some baffling (and often irritating) production choices, all three members delivered some choice vocal hooks.

On Gimme Some, the Stockholm trio’s fantastic follow up to that LP, they return to the simple pop-rock that made them great on their overlooked sophomore album, Falling Out (2004), with what sounds like some added chops both in front of the mic and behind the boards. It’s not as varied or sophisticated an album as their breakthrough Writer’s Block (2006)—there are no tracks that rival epics “Up Against The Wall” and “Roll the Credits” in length, no shoegaze washes à la “Objects Of My Affection”, and nothing with the instant universality of “Young Folks.” But what Gimme Some lacks in that album’s pop potpourri pedigree, it more than makes up for with economical brevity, good-natured garage rock energy, and sheer off-the-charts catchiness. At eleven tracks and thirty-seven minutes, there’s not a dull moment.

For all their Swedish pop precision, they make it sound like they’re positively ripping through this batch of songs; the record feels intricately labored over, tightly constructed, and off-the-cuff all at once. They unite excursions into a number of genres with a dose of playfully pissed-off attitude and simple, garage-tinged production; more than ever, they adhere to the guitar/bass/drums ethos of a classic power-pop trio. The bass and guitar arrangements fall exactly in the right places, but it’s John Eriksson’s blown-out drumming (best described with adjectives like “lurching”, “thundering”, and “charging”) that best captures the spirit of the album. His bouncy, idiosyncratic performances are the foundations for the equally single-worthy “Dig A Little Deeper” and “Second Chance”, and he contributes a great deal to the unhinged velocity of pop-punk joyrides “Breaker Breaker” and “Lies”—the latter segueing perfectly into krautrock-inflected album closer “I Know You Don’t Love Me”.

Vocal duties used to be more evenly spread around, but guitarist and main singer Peter Morén takes most of the lead vocals here. It was nice to hear contributions from bassist/producer Björn Yttling and drummer Eriksson on Writer’s Block, and they have the voices to pull it off, but Morén has always been their most capable lyricist, and his voice (slightly dorky-sounding accent and all) sounds more flexible than ever on this record. He soars on the anthemic chorus of pounding opener “Tomorrow Has To Wait,” and his “Lies” vocal is reminiscent of some of his heart-wrenching, Lennonesque turns on Falling Out. All the elements fall perfectly together for “May Seem Macabre,” a dynamic slow-builder that takes cues from post-punk and 1990s alternative and utilizes some well-placed U2-style echoing guitars.

Whether or not you’d follow the cover’s triple-thumbs-up lead in your evaluation of this album, it undeniably reflects the pure musical enthusiasm that PB&J bring to Gimme Some. The trio makes no pretense of game-changing innovation, but this seriously addictive record is one of my favorites of a still-young year that’s already brought us all kinds of great music. It has certainly racked up my highest play counts, by far, and I’m not even beginning to grow tired of it—it sounded great when it leaked in January, it still sounds great as spring begins to arrive, and I expect it’ll sound even better when summer rolls around.

Watch the video for “Second Chance” by Peter Bjorn & John: