Peter, Bjorn and John - 'Living Thing' (Wichita) Released 30/03/09

Tom Waits has addressed the sheer undesirability of growing up in his wonderfully cantankerous manner, but 'Stay This Way' could be the kind of thing the legendary Roy Orbison would deliver - poised with delicacy and the most minimal of ascetics as Morén sings "...I don't wanna go back, I don't wanna move on...". We're unlikely to see 'Lay It Down' get the daytime airplay with Morén singing "...hey, shut the fuck up boy, you are starting to piss me off, take your hands off that girl...", (unless Chris Moyles should get obtuse) it does, nevertheless, prove a catchy singalong with its' switch-blade swagger.

The best moments on 'Living Thing' come when Peter Morén sings with all the authority and charge-hand of Michael Stipe nudging aside the band mates, and top marks are due for effort and ability on the the minimal electro of 'Blue-Period Picasso' - a track that takes the innovative perspective of a Picasso painting that falls in love with a female viewer and longs to get down from the solitude a hall in Barcelona, Morén singing - "...the paintings around me, they don't understand me, I'm a bit too early, I'm seen as development". 'Living Thing' straddles the genres and emerges as a grower of an album, less immediate than its predecessor, it does manage to grow new feet whilst tumbling and falling.