Shout Out Louds – ‘Howl Howl Gaff Gaff’ (EMI) Released 19/09/05

 

Just how indie are the Swedes?  It’s almost as if government officials in Stockholm decided 10 years ago that it wasn’t enough that the Swedish population is better looking than us, makes nicer furniture than us, even speaks better English than some of us ferchrissakes – now they had to make cooler music than us as well.  So it was that The Wannadies were a feel-good student anthem machine long before Romeo Magic Number was even shaving, Nina Persson of The Cardigans was the kitsch-pop queen to Jarvis Cocker’s king, and now, the indie-est sounding of the lot (despite being signed to EMI) are tormenting us further by dropping the UK version of heir debut on our shores.

Like The Cardigans, Stockholm’s The Shout Out Louds have been buoyed by inclusion on a soundtrack – in this case, teen drama de rigeur The OC.  But it would be wrong to dismiss this 5 piece as the usual alt.preppy bollocks; especially when this is some of the finest indie you’ll hear this year.  6 of ‘Howl Howl Gaff Gaff’’s 11 tracks have been singles in their home country, though the galloping ‘Very Loud’, laden with rattling acoustics and Adam’s Robert Smith-like wail, will be most familiar to our ears.  Many of the tracks are clearly influenced by classic UK indie, as the Smiths stylings of ‘Please Please Please’ and ‘100 Degrees’ suggest; though the Spector-like dynamics of many tracks and even the country feel of ‘Oh, Sweetheart’ betray a love of classic American pop and rock.  They even pull off every indie band’s dream on ‘A Track and a Train’ by achieving a near perfect fusion of The Velvet Underground’s alternative prototype (think ‘Sunday Morning’) with the delicate touch of Belle and Sebastian – an effect made real by Bebban’s feathery-light harmonies.

Perhaps as a result of this being less an album than a compilation of singles and tracks from the Swedish album, there isn’t really enough cohesion to make this a truly great record.  However, it certainly is a solid collection and well worthy as an introduction to this ascendant group.  So, back to our question: how indie are the Swedes?  Well, on this evidence, not ‘Very Loud’ but certainly ‘Very Indie’.