I'm From Barcelona
Issue #31
Let Me Introduce You to My Friends (Mute)
By Salima Appiah-Kubi
Published: March 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
In music, there is a thin line between bubble gum and cotton candy. Bubble gum is sweet and a little senseless, but ultimately satisfying; cotton candy is sweet too, but lacks substance and too much can make you sick. More often than not, I’m From Barcelona’s Let Me Introduce You to My Friends falls well into cotton-candy territory.
Named for a catchphrase from the classic Brit sitcom Fawlty Towers, I’m From Barcelona, who actually hail from Sweden, is a group of Polyphonic Spree proportions. (Emanuel Lundgren of Valley Days gathered 28 of his closest friends to form the band.) The ensemble also shares the Spree’s breezy optimism but, surprisingly, not the Spree’s big sound; instead, Barcelona aspires more for sing-a-long rather than choir.
Usually when a band goes beyond the typical three- or four-piece setup, the result is rich orchestration: bright horns that loop around dark strings creating an all-encompassing sound á la Belle & Sebastian or Sufjan Stevens’ most recent work. Barcelona has a light, guitar-based pop sound, like Rooney or the Thrills, with little reflecting the numerous instruments supposedly going into the project. The promised kazoos and woodwinds remain mostly in the corners of the music while a guitar drives most of the action.
The bigger problem with Friends, though, is how little there is to the rest of the music. The first two tracks, “Oversleeping” and “Collection of Stamps,” each clock in at less than three minutes and only have one simple verse; “Treehouse” goes on for more than five minutes and says even less.
Overall, Let Me Introduce You to My Friends is sunny music for soundtracks — pleasant to listen to but nothing that really holds your attention.
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