New Music: I'm From Barcelona: "Music Killed Me" [MP3] / "Paper Planes" [Video]

Somebody must've finally broken the news to I'm From Barcelona about the whole "not really from Barcelona" thing. They're taking it hard. The Swedish indie-pop collective conquered faraway lands with simple, life-affirming pop songs backed by a choir of frontman Emanuel Lundgren's friends on their appropriately 2006 debut, Let Me Introduce My Friends, which featured the communal-spirited standout "We're From Barcelona". Improbably, on the strength of that release, the 20-plus-member group made it all the way to the U.S. for last year's Lollapalooza. Then music and Lundgren had a falling out, just in time for sophomore LP Who Killed Harry Houdini?.

"We're From Barcelona"-- like Peter Bjorn & John's "Young Folks", or Black Kids' "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You"-- was the kind of immediately infectious breakout song that could wind up overshadowing the rest of a band's career. It's not that potential one sort-of-hit wonder, though, but music in general that is troubling Lundgren on "Music Killed Me", a melancholy but still-lavish reversal from the group's familiar good cheer. "Things got out of hand," Lundgren sings wispily, as a softer section of piano, acoustic guitar, and rumbling drums builds into another huge chorale along the lines of ABBA-informed newcomers Music Go Music. "You have to take some chances, I suppose," I'm From Barcelona sing, finding a lesson in all this, before a synth-spangled interlude and abrupt false ending. Today, Barcelona: tomorrow, the dark side of the moon?

Stream:> I'm From Barcelona: "Music Killed Me" (mp3 available for
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BONUS: I'm From Barcelona also have a new video out, for first Houdini single "Paper Planes". It's not an M.I.A. cover, and it doesn't look like a Coca-Cola commercial, but it does involve sex in an elevator.

[from Who Killed Harry Houdini?; due 10/14/08 on Mute]