It seems the Swedes can't serve up pop music without a generous side of irony. Perhaps the guilt of inflicting ABBA on the world prevents them from going all-out cheese, but whatever the reason, their most successful exports always make the North Sea crossing with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. In the mid-90s The Cardigans came across like a Scandinavian Blondie - dripping with deadpan wit - and to this day, bugged-eyed rock lampooners The Hives are still putting the parody into Swedish pop.
Not wanting to let the side down, Stockholm's Shout Out Louds adopt an air of irony with their band, single and album names. It comes as no surprise that they don't shout, leadoff track 'Very Loud' isn't, and 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff' is not the noise-fest its title suggests. As soon as the CD is out of its faux-rock wrappings and into your stereo, the sweet melodies and sugary lyrics make it clear that the Shout Out Louds are oh-so-sincere about what they do.
Which makes it doubly disappointing to discover that what they do is nothing new. 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff' is a fizzled-out Arcade Fire of an album that shaves off all the Canadians' sharp edges until all that remains is soft, fuzzy folk-pop. So, while 'Very Loud' country-jitters along nicely with its jangly guitars and backwoods harmonica, it's too weak to be a bone fide anthem. With the chorus, "Little by little/You're gonna hear me cry/Why?", it's more of a whimper than a shout out loud.
Not content with doing over the Arcades, the Shout Out Louds also twok from other greats. 'Shut Your Eyes' is sub-Strokes clatter and 'Oh, Sweetheart' sounds like Dinosaur Jr would if they could be arsed to learn the violin and feel something. 'Go Sadness' is like the first few minutes of a Polyphonic Spree epic that builds to nothing in particular, and leaves the listener asking: OK, so there goes sadness, but where is the sun? And when female keyboard player Bebban Stenborg joins Adam Olenius on vocals for 'A Track and a Train', the band morph into syrupy music box indie-pop - Bell End Sebastian, if you will.
Olenius sums up the Shout Out Louds' dilemma perfectly on 'There's Nothing': "there's songs that never should be written, there's words that never should be said". 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff' is an exercise in futility, and only worth buying if you've recently lost all your favourite albums in a house fire. While not quite a howler, it's definitely a gaff.
~James Glazebrook
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