Mute U.S.
2008
Who Killed Harry Houdini?
About This Album
I'm from Barcelona's first album was called Let Me Introduce My Friends; the follow-up could be titled Let Me Introduce My Melancholy Friends. If the debut was giddy, innocent, and lighter than air, Who Killed Harry Houdini? is glum, confused, and troubled. Instead of songs about stamp collecting and the joys of making music, you get "Music Almost Killed Me" and "Ophelia," which has the telling lyric "He didn't believe in anything/He didn't believe in joy." Instead of cheerful songs about oversleeping and chicken pox, heavy stuff like death and ghosts and tears dominate the lyrics. The band's leader, Emanuel Lundgren, has either had some rough times since the first album or is a very good actor, as the songs reflect a tortured soul. All throughout the record there's an overcast and moody feel that even the poppiest, peppiest song, "Paper Planes," can't break through (and it doesn't help that the song is about the dehumanizing effects of city living). Just knowing that the album isn't the pure blast of sunshine that the debut was might be enough to turn off the group's fans in dispirited droves. Hopefully that won't happen, because it turns out that the band does melancholy quite well, using dynamics and pacing to keep things from getting too gloomy and giving the most depressed songs the liveliest backing -- the rocked-out "Houdini" or the hooky-as-anything-on-the-first-album "Mingus," for example.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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