peter bjorn and john

[37] Peter Bjorn And John featuring Victoria Bergsman, ‘Young Folks’

Snappy beat group bop with whistling and dippy singalong chorus – there’s no way this won’t score high with the kids. And that must be its intention (at least targeting the indie twee kids); after all, Peter, Bjorn And John don’t devote themselves to pop hits the rest of the time and, apart from the rare uptempo Concretes number, Victoria Bergsman is more comfortable wrapping her helium Bjork purr around Scandi C&W. ‘Young Folks’ has a shelf-life, but while it’s stacked upfront it does its job with infectiousness.

Junior says: “Where’s that piano that you play with the metal wire?” She wants to accompany the gang on stylophone. The instrument’s not handy though so she and middle sis bounce off the walls instead, bellowing “We don’t care about the om force!” I tell them the real title, but, um, they don’t care.

Best bit: Big, lingering chords introduced for the final chorus, set up for a crescendo that sneaks away.

[13] Lykke Li, ‘I’m Good, I’m Gone’

Lykke Li

Junior was poorly this morning, so her mother kept this one back ‘til later. I had no worries about it being a smash with her, though, because we’ve been wallowing in the peculiar cooing sound of Lykke Li all year long. She already had a foot in the door of our house before I’d heard a note – what with my compulsive love of Scandinavian pop – but when she turned out to be a Swedish Björk with enough glorious tunes to fill an ABBA Best Of… well, we practically had the guest room made up.

Whatever you might expect, there’s nothing flimsy about ‘I’m Good, I’m Gone’, the most plainly obvious single from the gossamer-light but hard-nosed Youth Novels album. It sashays about while piano is gamely thumped, and even though Lykke sounds cutesy she’s still letting us know who’s boss. Cementing the Scandi-pop credentials, this and Youth Novels enjoy the production magic of Björn of Peter, Björn and John fame; that’s Peter, Björn and John of ‘Young Folks’ fame; that’s ‘Young Folks’ of Jukebox Junior No.1 Single of 2006 fame; that’s the 2006 Top 20 of I-haven’t-yet-transferred-it-to-this-version-of-the-blog fame. Got all that?

Eventually, Junior listened on the way home from Sainsbury’s and was observed to clap in time (you’ll hear Lykke Li herself declaring, “I know your hands will clap”). It enjoyed a second play at home, where Junior danced like a dervish. So much for being ill. She then asked for “lemico, lemico”, which Lykke fans may recognise as a bastardised refrain from ‘Tonight’. Yes, we’ve played this album a lot.