Albums : Shout Out Louds : Optica

Albums : Shout Out Louds : Optica

Listen To Shout Out Louds : Optica

Who is Shout Out Louds?
Formed in Stockholm by childhood friends Adam Olenius (vocals), Ted Malmros (bass), and Carl von Arbin (guitars), Shout Out Louds found an international audience during the early 2000s with their peppy Swedish pop. The lineup began taking shape in 2001, with drummer Eric Edman and keyboardist Bebban Stenborg climbing aboard shortly thereafter. Shout Out Louds wasted little time writing songs, the first three of which formed the basis of their first demo tape. The music caught the ear of Filip Wilén, owner of Sweden's Bud Fox Recordings, and he quickly signed the group to his label. Shout Out Louds then spent the majority of 2002 writing more songs, and December found them recording their debut EP, 100°, which was released in 2003. The group's high-energy, ultra-melodic sound was in place from the very beginning.

The band toured Sweden and Scandinavia in support of 100°, whose release was followed by two singles, "Hurry Up Let's Go" and "Shut Your Eyes." In October 2003, the group released its first album, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, to great acclaim in Sweden. The band spent the following year touring, releasing additional material ("Please Please Please," "Very Loud/Wish I Was Dead," and the Oh, Sweetheart EP), and inking an American deal with Capitol Records. The U.S. version of Howl Howl Gaff Gaff was released in May 2005, featuring songs from the Swedish release plus some early singles and EP tracks. A tour of the U.S. with indie darlings the Dears helped boost the band's profile, as did airplay on The OC. Despite such growing success, the band's 2007 album — Our Ill Wills, produced by Björn Yttling — was a somber, melancholy affair, replete with icy synths and Cure-inspired vocals. Another round of tour dates kept the bandmates busy until mid-2008, at which point they decided to take a half-year hiatus. March 2009 found the musicians reconvening in Stockholm to write new material, and by August the band had decamped to Seattle to begin recording with producer Phil Ek. Their third album, Work, arrived in early 2010. After coming home from a tour to support the album, the bandmembers felt that a change in the way they worked was in order. Hoping to recapture the more relaxed spirit of earlier recordings, they spent time outside the studio composing the songs, with each bandmember responsible for coming up with their own parts. When they came back together, the band produced their next record themselves (with help from Johannes Berglund) in a small Stockholm studio. Optica was released by Merge in early 2013.

Optica Review
It feels fitting to absorb Shout Out Louds’ fourth full-length album, named after the science of light, during the down-right meanest (and darkest) month of the year. As the band’s resident female wrote of Optica and its concept, “Actual doctors prescribe light to us as a cure for ailments and deficiencies.” This quintet’s prescription for our collective case of the Februaries? Sleek, ’80s-inspired indie pop the way New Order used to do, recorded with hardly any prior rehearsing — a fun first for the group.

The lovable lo-fi sound of the band’s debut has been polished and refined over the past 10 years, and while 2010′s Work felt a bit too much like its moniker, Optica finds Shout Out Louds at their own synthy, post-work happy hour. Frontman Adam Olenius still sings of one of the band’s favorite topics: nostalgia. But the oft-tackled theme intermingles with feelings — feelings elicited by all the luminosity on top of exuberant synths that make the present feel more important (and more fun) than the past. The album-opener “Sugar” nails the sentiment: “Memories, they play tricks on me / In bright, bright sunlight, I forget where I want to be.”

The record’s energy ebbs and flows without fault, as “Blue Ice”, which sounds like a slow song at a John Hughes prom, segues into Optica‘s dancey crown jewel, “14th of July”. The quick-tempoed track could be a long-lost Top 40 number from 1986 (complete with those wind chimes to kick-off the chorus), as could the ABBA-esque “Illusions”. Even guitarist Carl von Arbin gives his fellow Swedes a cosign: “They had some kind of groove and harmonies that are really, really great.”

With the jazz-flute-driven “Walking In Your Footsteps” rounding out the highlights, it’s these tracks that radiate the most, but the whole LP serves as a welcome illumination of the otherwise abandoned dance floor we call February.

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Sources : Shout Out Louds Photo | Listen To Optica | Shout Out Louds Biography | Optica Review

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