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 (Merge/Dew Process)
Swedish band keep it simple on album number three
Shout Out Louds’ last album, Our Ill Wills, was packed with production bells and whistles courtesy of studio wizard Björn Yttling. Their new release, Work, is partly a reaction to the swooning strings and chiming percussion of that record – the Swedish band, fed up with all the added gloss, decided to strip their sound right back to the core guitar-piano-bass-drums line-up. Accordingly, Work is a lean and mean sounding record. The most obvious comparison, sound-wise, is Phoenix’s triumphant release Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – both are constructed of bright, simple new wave pop songs, and both seek to find the maximum joy in the least number of elements. Adam Olenius’ vocals, though, have a distinctly Swedish melancholy, bringing even the bounciest tracks, like opener 1999, a sense of world-weary nostalgia. That track and Fall Hard are probably the album’s highlights, galloping along like New Order’s joyful Ceremony (sure, writing songs that could soundtrack the trailers for Sofia Coppola films is somewhat played out at this point, but Shout Out Louds do it with panache). The album’s less show off-y tracks, like Play The Game and the gentle Candle Burned Out are inviting enough to reward repeated listens. Shout Out Louds may have chosen to call this album Work, but rest assured that listening to it is pure pleasure.
****
ALASDAIR DUNCAN
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