I shout, you shout, we all shout for SHOUT OUT LOUDS

By: Tate Lamoreaux

     This Swedish indie rock band hasn’t built a DeLorean, but they’ve done the next best thing. Shout Out Louds’ fourth album plays like an ‘80s mix tape; Optica is a time machine. With modern production, they infused the soft rock of David Bowie with the New Wave synth of New Order. They recorded the album in house, themselves and merged old styles with contemporary production and produced a clean pop sound that makes the album a pure delight.

     “For Optica, we took a sharp turn from the greyscale, indoor landscape of our previous album Work, in pursuit of boldness, and brightness,” said the band on their website, shoutoutlouds.com. “We decided not to hold back at all.”

     Electronic pianos, the occasional bash from brass horns, the strings from an orchestra and all the cliché ‘80s trademarks of synth-pop and New Wave find themselves in Optica; but it is done with a subtlety and with honest intentions. Their own innovation in indie pop intertwined in the rewarding reminiscence of the ‘80s produce an effective album for both the long-term fan and the newbie listening for the first time.

     “The Easter eggs from past decades with the modern sound come together to form a really solid album,” said sophomore and longtime fan Victoria Canizales.

     Optica can easily be played next to an album by The Smiths or The Cure, flowing effortlessly, but it is also similar to other revival albums by contemporaries, such as Battle Born by The Killers, Heartthrob by Tegan and Sara or Last Night on Earth by Noah & The Whale. Shout Out Louds isn’t the only band to play off the old genres.

     Two months before Optica hit the shelves “Blue Ice,” the first single, hit the airwaves. The four and a half minute single heralded in good signs and foreshowed a matured new sound. Shout Out Louds spent three years away from music before this release but that did not dull their talent. “Blue Ice” is a trip down the rabbit hole. The consistent, constant light drumming and the coy, soft piano riffs combined with Adam Olenius’ repetition of the lyrics “I keep running away, running away, running away,” in a deep, tantalizing voice, all take the listener on a captivating adventure. “Blue Ice” set a trance on the listeners, and with hidden violins, hypnotizes them into loving Shout Out Louds.

     “Illusions,” the second single from Optica, springs forth from the silence with a heavy, teasing bass line, faintly resembling “My Body” from Young the Giant, but swiftly transitions into more of an open landscape, road-trip-montage type song, more like “Send Me on My Way” by Rusted Roots. Heavy on the synthesizer, the fusion of synth-pop and folk give “Illusions” a retro-futuristic feel. There is an innovative familiarity here which creates a surreal mirage, like an illusion. It paradoxically rings in a tone of retrospect but resonates a novelty all its own.

     Shout Out Louds has always had deep roots in the indie rock and indie pop scene, but with Optica they tried something new and branched outside their comfort zone. This new album encroaches on what Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses, Local Natives and We Are Scientists have been making for years: good music.