Howler - America Give Up
Howler
Album: America Give Up
Label: Rough Trade Records
Out Now
Rating: 4/5
Howler are America’s next big guitar hopes and they have delivered a very good debut album in the form of America Give Up.
What it’s so great about this album is it is just bursting with youthful experience; it’s no where near as depressing as the title would have you believe.
Beach Sluts is the perfect opener as it is upbeat and infectious and it really does set the tone for the rest of the album.
All of the songs on this album follow a very similar vein; chilled out verses and then spiky and catchy choruses - the likes of Back To The Grave and This One‘s Different could be really successful singles.
Ok so this album could sound like it could be made by a handful of bands, it’s particularly reminiscent of the first albums from the Strokes, and I think that Howler haven’t really found a sound that will set them out from the rest.
But you have to remember that the boys are very young and, despite his tender years, Jordan Gatesmith is one fine vocal form throughout.
His upbeat vocal style is supported brilliantly by some great guitars work and some simple backbeats.
But the key to this album is the songs are well written - they really are a set of good pop/rock songs - thankfully you will find nothing experimental or too deep here.
What’s bad about this album is it’s only thirty two minutes; I could have happily listened to an album twice this long.
America Give Up is a great piece of pop/rock that I enjoyed from beginning to end and these boys have a promising future ahead of them.
But on later records it would be great to see them take on more challenging and darker material where Gatesmith’s vocals can really be put to the test.
Howler: American Give Up is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw