Twenty years ago, Shout Out Louds were one of the leading lights in the ‘Swedish Invasion’ with Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, some beautiful & energetic indie-pop. Times have changed (Sweden’s in NATO, while blue-and-yellow flags now mean Ukraine…). To honor the anniversary and respect the forward march of life, the band has revisited five of the songs in Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (Revisited) EP.
The most notable revision to songs such as “Please Please Please” and “Very Loud” is trading in some of the youthful pressure for a bigger beauty of age, reaching for the heavens rather than the gas pedal. There is an airy element added to pieces like “The Comeback” and “100°”, while guest Sibille Attar brings a looking back call to life on the final “Hurry Up Let’s Go”.
Even as we get older, our old records stay the same like Wooderson’s high school girls, but they don’t need to. Yes, this revisitation to Howl might not be the songs you fell in love with back when (but those are also still around, as fresh as ever), but instead enjoy old friends growing wiser.
