Peter, Bjorn, and John Leak A Track To Their Pal Kanye
Peter, Bjorn, and John premiered a nameless non-goofy-instrumental-album single on Kanye West’s blogs, of all places. Though in this era of artists leaking artists, it’s as good a place as any. Heckfire, I’d love for Kanye to post my music on his blog, right next to mod lamps, big-bootied models, and shoes I could never afford in a million years. I think it’s a savvy decision on PB&J’s part, and it bespeaks a desire on their part for further mainstream and crossover success. Some of Yeezy’s commentariat approve:
LiberatedWriter | January 6, 2009 Ok… This is totally HOT like Fleetwood Mac on wax… HOT+++NESS.
halo40 | January 6, 2009 Sounds dope, and i like their work!!!!!!
leFtofOrdiNarY | January 6, 2009 that’s a Funky little gem … I like it, thanks for sharing KW. ps. Congrats on 808’s platinum status.
How’s the song? Kicking off with an almost-shrill kids’ choir, it reminds me of the type of thing Damon Albarn’s been up to since the dissolution of Blur, what with the handclaps and faux-timbale drums*, though it does share rhythmic and arrangement similarities with Spoon, which means it could be called arty minimalism or songwriting laziness, depending on your politics. I enjoyed it, but the verses seem rather unnecessary. The vocals are a little up front for lyrics that banal! The real meat of the song is in the chorus, where the kid’s choir comes back in and doesn’t become the annoyance it promised to be at the beginning. It might not be as “crazy” as promised, but it’s solid. Like much of modern hip-hop, it’s a hook flown throughout a song on top of propellant rhythms, less concerned with “song smarts” than with inertia, which works for me. Like I said, I enjoyed it, but, more importantly, I’m enjoying the curveballs the Swedish popsters keep throwing with (at?) their career.
* Not to pick on the very handsome and nice Mark Richardson of Pitchfork here, but can I call a moratorium on these kinds of drums being called “tribal”? Besides the problematic anthropological connotations of the world “tribal,” it seems like reviewers are quick to point out any sort of syncopation as immediately “tribal.” Whether critics mean it or not, and I believe Mark is talking more about intensity and feel here than anything else, it often devolves into code for “non-4/4,” “syncopated,” or, worse, “non-white” or “ethnic”-sounding, forgetting that most of the music/drumming called “tribal” is made by distinctly non-tribal people.
