Shout Out Louds
Our Ill Wills

THE REVIEW

"Our ill wills" is the second album by the Scandinavian band Shout Out Louds. It starts with an acoustic guitar riff that recalls (with a few less strums here and there) the way Jonny Marr plays it. The keyboard melody seems taken from a (good) outtake from the pop period of The Cure. Adam Olenius's voice does nothing to avoid reminding you of Robert Smith with that slight lisp on the "s" that is so distinctly Swedish. Bittersweet are the lyrics, captivating the melodies. But forget about the upbeat tracks that launched their debut.

The new work by the five from Stockholm appears more moderate in tempo but peppered with small midtempo gems. Composed of measured stops and tempered crescendos. What surprises is the craftsmanship of the song structures... all potential singles. Then there's Bebban Stenborg, she plays, sings, and writes (excellently) and is everything you could wish for from a Swede. Then there's the simply beautiful (this one truly a single) "Impossible", a track that made me discover this album (and almost forget the debut) with its violins all perfectly placed and, in the lyrics, the tales of a love that inevitably intertwine with existential ones.
For "South America", our band seems to dive into a folk-like and Cure/Smiths-esque song at the same time: a successful experiment. Instrumental is the almost title track "Ill wills" which can seem like a small pop gem lacking only the vocals but also, in a Veltronian way, a small acoustic bonsai that can stand on its own... Complete and equally beautiful is the percussive "Time left for love" with a chorus that calling it a killer in its perfection is not an exaggeration.

In short, yet another Scandinavian Bignami album of pop rock by excellent artists... it's clear now... there's a lot of it these days.

Among the weak points of the album, there's perhaps a muddiness of sound for a record that (in my opinion) shouldn't be deliberately too lo-fi. But it's an album that slowly grows on you... little by little, it piques your curiosity... and doesn't let you go.

Try it... it creates a pleasant kind of addiction.