Peter Moren - The Last Tycoon

If the name Peter Moren sounds foreign to you, chances are you’re more familiar with him than you think. Moren’s other gig as the songwriter/vocalist/guitarist for Peter Bjorn and John propelled him into the spotlight after the band’s successful 2006 album Writer’s Block, featuring the formerly ubiquitous whistle-filled single “Young Folks.” Oh, and the band is from Sweden, so I guess the name Peter Moren should sound somewhat foreign.

Now Moren has branched out of PB&J with his first solo release, The Last Tycoon, and just this week he came to the states for a brief North American tour. The Wexner Center was able to grab one of the handful of dates--he’ll play the venue’s performance space tomorrow. (Kudos again to the Wex for continuing to help fill the void left by the closing of Little Brother’s.)

Those planning on going to the show shouldn’t, however, expect the same up-tempo New Wave power-pop that PB&J is known for. The Last Tycoon is folky, singer/songwriter fare with an intimate, home-recorded feel. Moren’s vocals are right up front in every song, which is bothersome because he constantly sounds like he has a bad cold. It’s not as noticeable on PB&J material, with its fleshed-out arrangements, but on a record this stripped-down, it becomes irksome. The album does have various flourishes like strings, synthesizers and some percussion, but Moren’s voice and guitar (or sometimes piano) are the undeniable focal points of the songs.

Expecting any of these songs to be as catchy as “Young Folks” would be an inappropriate expectation, but most of Tycoon’s hooks are marginal. “Missing Link” and “Le Petit Coeur” are sad and sappy in a Jim Croce or Burt Bacharach kind of way, the latter track perilously delving into the French-lyric realm with pompous results.

“This Is What I Came For” is probably the best track, a long-form folk song with hand claps keeping the beat, piano punctuating the pauses and repeated verse melodies serving as the refrain. But the song also highlights Moren’s scatterbrained lyrical approach: intriguing lines interspersed among seemingly random thoughts that rarely combine to complete the puzzle.

The album is named after the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished final novel, a story of a tragic Hollywood executive who succeeded in business at the expense of his happiness and health. Moren does weave a similar theme of discontent throughout the album. “Social Competence” describes a man sick of putting on a happy façade and smiling politely at the world, but it does so with such flatness. “I don’t want to talk to you about the things you do, about your weekend,” he sings in the refrain.

“Tell Me in Time” describes the slightly unpleasant after effects of a relationship: “It’s not that I want you back, but I admit that sometimes I miss the feeling of being known.” There’s no intensity, just a lukewarm malaise--a malaise that’s contagious when listening to The Last Tycoon.

mp3: Peter Moren - Social Competence