Howler

America Give Up

Rough Trade; 2011

by Gylfi Blöndal

6.1

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Minnesota rock quartet Howler have been at the receiving end of a wave of support lately, with bloggers competing to dub them as the saviors of good old fashion chord-based rock’n'roll. It’s understandable that people take notice when Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis signs a relatively new band (Howler was formed in 2010) when he was the guy who broke The Strokes 10 years ago. As Howler bare a hefty resemblance to The Strokes while being backed by their counterparts’ original label, it should come as no surprise that Rough Trade is betting on the success of Howler.
 
 

 

 
 
What Howler have come up with under the paramount pressure that unavoidably comes with this type of exposure is something else entirely. America Give Up starts off with a rather lazy sunshine of a song (Beach Sluts) which takes a more powerful spin towards the end. Followed by Back To The Grave, a garage-style sing-a-long that has very little to do with The Strokes. The third track, and the albums’ stand-out track is undoubtedly This One’s Different. This is where Howler shine, in the fast-paced songs with memorable choruses like the aforementioned This One’s Different and the track that follows, America. The album continues on even though the middle part falls short on the promise delivered with the first three songs, only to regain it’s momentum with Told You Once and following it through until the end of the album.
 
 

 
 
The result is a fairly solid debut album from a promising band. Even though it’s clear that Strokes-like fanfare will not follow for the time being, they can stand proud for keeping their end of the bargain. This album is not as good as I expected but that really only bears witness to the noise music blogs can make nowadays. Still, it’s not bad and will probably just do fine for now. However, I will hold my breath until the real deal comes along.