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

Album Reviews

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.