Music review – “Very Loud” - Shout Out Louds

From Stockholm, Sweden come the “Shout Out Louds” and their first album “Howl Howl Gaff Gaff”. After listening to this album, and especially the song “Very Loud”, you’ll come to know that there truly is a rock-pop garage-band machine alive and well and procreating in Sweden. This five-piece band performs a dazzling style of graceful melodic music in the tradition of Ace of Base and the Cardigans. Theirs is an impressive sound of a subtle, yet confident optimism. This is a band of broken hearts attempting to communicate a tender idealistic outlook on love. “Very Loud” is beautifully executed song, which reminds me of a mix between Material Issue and The Flaming Lips meet the Proclaimers. They merge raw emotion with garage-guitar passion in painful, sometimes crushing longing that now and then borders on the saccharine.
There is a tongue-in-cheek irony that is both wistful and entertaining about this band. They never shout, the track “Very Loud” isn’t, very, and “Howl Howl Gaff Gaff” is not the celebration of noise that the title suggests. But there is a playful focus and simplicity in the music that makes all their naked emotions believable. Comprised of Adam Olenius (vocal, guitarist), Ted Malmros (bass), Carl von Arbin (guitar), Eric Edman (drums) and Bebban Stenborg (keyboards), Shout Out Louds write songs that are passionate and sinister, poignant and thoughtful, blissful and gloomy, clever, elemental but above all delivered from the soul.

While certainly not the Next Big Thing, this remarkable debut is the next excellent thing!

“…everything about the record is brilliantly clear and brilliant in the true definition of the word -- that is, glittering, striking, and distinctive.”
-Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

…Swedish rock factory… perfectly formed, retro-rock quintet bustles with handclaps, keyboard-driven pop melodies and a potent new-wave punch…
- Mundane Sounds.

Shout Out Louds

* The Alternative One