Petter & The Pix - 'Easily Tricked' (Gung Ho!) Released 12/05/08

Petter & The Pix is the bastard offspring of Petter Winnberg and a whole host of Scandinavian chaps with long names that have put out what seems an ill-considered album running to 27 minutes over 9 popsy tunes. An EP runs to 16-20 minutes, typically, an album 44 minutes to 70, so what can we make of doling out the readies for ‘Easily Tricked’, eh? Stocking fillers abound amidst some gadfly, if not invigorating moments, and the tone is generally up-beat, but there’s no escaping Petter’s voice - a whiney falsetto that seems to aspire to Belle and Sebastian’s whimsy and fey pop, whilst a sugar-coating of strings make for a lightness and breeziness.

Petter’s jazz licks and bass funking show through on ‘As A Soul’ as fey vocals and thus fey pop carry the bargaining of souls - “…you give me your hand/ and I’ll give you a piece of my soul…”, and on ‘Weak’ Petter does a Scandinavian whine like a cat left out in the rain which comes across like some character from Sesame Street, but on ‘Shine’, a solo melody, Petter strums away chipperly like a Jack Johnson milkman tune, and on title track ‘Easily Tricked’, the riddim bounces with a roots/ska bon homie like the old stalwarts The Beat, Petter squaring the circles - “…I’m always around you/ I’ll always be there/ You will surround me/ make a circle square…”.

On ‘So Easy’ there’s the hints of depth as Ray Lamontagne and Paul Simon are brought to mind but the song falters by a lack of any real musical hooks that sweet strings cannot conceal, and strings are the order of the day on ‘Blame’ as an organ grinds and tom toms patter with Eleanor Rigby-esque strings on a sun-dappled melody - “…moving on/ moving on/ love is moving on…”, whilst ‘Let The Rain’ shimmers with woodland strings and mirth and a cautionary tale - “…one step from freedom/ one step from stupidity…” and ‘Nevermind’ with Portishead-style broodiness of strings.

With band members from Gus Gus along in the guise of President Bongo and Gunnar Orn Tynes from Mum, their experience has not rubbed off on our friend Petter. Fey Pop needs its anchors too, for fear of being blown away by the wind. And in this case, the wind has gotten up. Not that it’ll stop ad execs getting their mitts on it!