A year after the song was first released, folks young and old are still whistling it like mad: on subway cars and street corners; at house parties and in dance clubs.

At some music venues like Great Scott in Allston, "Young Folks" has turned the puckered lip into as much of a symbol of the indie pop scene as fist-pumping is at a punk concert or moshing is at a hard-core show.
Jeffrey Sullivan, a 27-year-old travel consultant from Somerville, has been swept up by "Young Folks" whistlemania.

He whistles the song in the shower, on bike rides, at nightspots. He constantly notices the song breezing by him from others, on the sidewalk, in the office.

"It's a carefree song," Sullivan says. "Around Cambridge and Somerville, I always hear people whistling that."

Finally! Whistling is cool again [Boston Globe]

We figured that by now it might be a little late to write about Writer's Block, the 2006 album from Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn and John, but when we saw the great Chuck Eddy's claim, when discussing Idolator's Jackin' Pop Poll, to have never heard of them, we figured that there might be a couple of you out there in the same boat. (Hell, even sophisticated urbanites such as ourselves didn't catch on to this record until late fall).

We're not at all proficient at describing music, but we will say that the main component is, as seems to be the case with pretty much everything these days, The Beatles. (You can almost hear "Baby's in Black" at the core of every song.) That said, a variety of loops, processed sounds, and other elements make this more than just your standard power pop homage; the standout tracks "Young Folks" and "Amsterdam" manage the neat trick of sounding immediately familiar yet completely new while both being incredibly catchy. (You will not get the whistled melody of "Young Folks" out of your head, oh, ever.) As it stands now, the album is only available as an import, which is a shame: We can't think of an album we enjoyed more in the last year that we're still listening to daily in the new one. Shell out the cash or rip it from a friend, but trust us, this is something you're pretty much guaranteed to enjoy. (The band plays at Bowery Ballroom on January 30th; sadly, the show is sold out.)

Peter Bjorn and John

Update: Writer's Block will be released domestically (with a 6-track bonus disc!) on February 6th. You can pre-order here. And you should.