PETER BJORN AND JOHN Living Thing (2009 US 12-track CD album - there was always going to be chatter as to how Peter Bjorn and John would follow up their album 'Writer's Block', a true pop phenomenon. Would they try to replicate their earlier success? Or go out of their way to release a willfully difficult new album? In actual fact, what they have done is a bit of both - and neither - all at the same time. Bolstered by the band's production, the first taster of the album, 'Lay it Down', was a delightfully off-kilter riposte, and the rest of the album walks a similar tightrope of melody and mayhem, pulsing with life, bursting at the seams with energy and vitality, and shot through with warmth and excitement and wonder; presented in sealed & stickered fold-out card sleeve).