Shout Out Louds: Howl Howl Gaff Gaff : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

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Scandinavian bands of the new millennium have a reputation for dabbling in studiously retro pop and rough-cut garage rock (think the Hives). On their debut album, the sentimental punks in Sweden's Shout Out Louds move ahead of the pack, mussing up sparkling, delicately hewn melodies with singer Adam Olenius' ragged yelps and turning their Sixties and Eighties pop influences into something new. The band brings a nihilistic, beer-soaked glee to what would otherwise be a plaintive breakup song on "The Comeback," as shuffling guitar, swaying rhythms and Tetris-style keyboard blips set the mood. "There's Nothing" is a spot-on homage to late-Eighties Cure that avoids the overwrought melodrama you hear in many post-punk throwback acts. Contrary to its title, the glorious "Very Loud" isn't meant to shatter eardrums, but there's no denying the steady swell of galloping drums and dreamy guitar strums, which give way to an electric, fist-pumping chorus. At once glittering and gritty, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff is lovely, emotional stuff that may well endure long after the current Scandinavian Invasion.

LAUREN GITLIN

(Posted: Jul 28, 2005)

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4of 5 Stars

On their debut, Sweedens The Shout Out Louds take the old sixties pop their countrymen the Hives are so fond of and turn it inside out. The album opens with the Atari keyboard blips of The Comeback, two minutes and forty eight seconds of pure pop joy. The rest of the album moves along in slightly smilar fashion. There's the nods to garage rock kings like the Zombies and Them but with a sense of wide eyed enthusiasim and hooks a plenty.

Jan 5, 2006 19:33:12

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