One of these days I will make a Top 10 list for “Favorite Albums from College”, and it will be a lovely stroll down memory lane indeed. For the time being we will just say that Peter Bjorn & John’s 2006 album Writer’s Block is on that list. I remember driving to a Best Buy in Manhattan, Kansas…..yes, a Best Buy, and buying this one along with one of the Kings of Leon records.
When “Young Folks” came on, track 3, I knew I was listening to something new. That bass line stutters along as if dragging it’s feet till that grand release of “THE WHISTLE HEARD THROUGH ALL DORMROOMS”. You can’t help but bob your head, just like those animated kids in the music video. As I drove back to my apartment, I felt like the coolest college kid on the block. It was like an initiation, a rite-of-passage into college by listening to an album so clearly catered to the newfangled hip of 00’s college radio.
Once those echo-laden vocals kick in and the first exchange between male and female vocals cascades into the chorus, I was ready to start the song over to hear that whistle again. When those conga drums start up towards the center of the song I was almost overwhelmed by the catchiness, and the “cool factor” PB&J were trying to create through a teenage cool oozing with a kind of mellifluous indifference and stoic swagger. That’s not to say the entire album has this groove on apathy, in fact, some of my other favorite songs on this album seem to wear their hearts on the sleeve. “Paris 2004” and “Up Against the Wall” are my other two favorites from this album, and they yearn both lyrically and musically in a way that tugged on my young impressionable heartstrings. “Objects of My Affection” is a bona fide college anthem for many, and the other big tracks off the album, “Amsterdam” and “Let’s Call It Off” feel like sister songs to “Young Folks”.
I would like to thank these Swedish pop-rock geniuses for making a near-perfect album and a “Top 10 College Album”. When I listen to it now I still feel that tingly feeling of nascent adulthood that is tucked away in the depths of my chest start to rise up again. The album is youthful, a testimony to the spirit of the “Young Folks” chalked full of unbridled emotion and most importantly, the yearning. They weren’t able to capture the same magic in later albums, although they did score a few more radio hits like “Second Chance”, but this one is undeniably their defining achievement. Here are a few more just to celebrate!
