
I’m from Barcelona is a Swedish mega group known for playful pop and magnetic melodies, so the title of their latest album, Who Killed Harry Houdini?, is perplexing. What does Emanuel Lundgren, the songwriter and leader of this 29-member troupe, have hiding up his sleeves?
Surprises are immediately exposed. The first track, “Andy,” reveals a ghostly choir and a girl-group melody. Pounding drums and spacious sounds dramatically envelop the song’s playful foundation. The obscure layers are coated with Lundgren’s encouraging lyrics: “We could need someone/Like you in our band/Andy/No auditions and you don’t/Have to pretend.” What would be the harm of a 30th band mate anyway?
These desires to be transported and these spacious sounds are constant throughout the album. Similar to the juxtaposition of surrealist and childish images on the album cover, the music combines abstract instrumentation and universal outlooks. “Headphones” illustrates this complexity. The music combines acoustic, electric and obscure sounds—classical and playful touches. The lyrics express these magical and transformational qualities of music: “They can take me/Anywhere I want/I put my headphones on/I put my headphones on.”
“Houdini” is the song that illustrates Harry Houdini’s role on this album. The mystery surrounding Houdini and his death adds to the mysticism of magic and trickery that he performed as an escapologist. Lundgren continues to frantically search for ways to elude reality in the way Houdini did. The electric guitar pushes the song’s pace as Lundgren presses his subject for solutions: “You’re like Houdini/No one else would believe/Me/You’re like Houdini/Use your powers to free me.” Lundgren yearns for illusion.
The last song on the album, “Rufus,” is the collective release of this abstract craving for escape. Band mates gather, searching for a highlighted path on which to comfortably be guided. It builds from timid softness to boisterous rock-and-roll with shaking electric guitars and jaunty handclaps. It feels like a voyage through time and space. At the end of it, Lundgren sounds exhausted. The last lines he utters are: “In my heart, In my heart/Still a kid.” Childhood is an escape, and it still reveals itself in his head.
Who Killed Harry Houdini? contains much of the youthful energy this colossal band created on their previous album, but I’m from Barcelona manages to harness and employ their power with deeper thoughts and stranger sounds. They enchant their listeners as Houdini fascinated his viewers: by combining the real with the surreal.