Shout Out Louds Announce 'Optica' LP, Hit Canada on North American Spring Tour

BY Alex HudsonPublished Dec 4, 2012

Last week, Shout Out Louds got everyone's attention by announcing a 7-inch made of ice, and now that a few lucky folks have been given the chance to ruin their turntables with water damage, the rest of us will soon be treated to the Swedish indie pop group's new album. Optica will be out on February 26 through Merge Records.

The band self-produced these songs over a year-and-a-half-long period in a Stockholm studio with help from Johannes Berglund (the Radio Dept., Korallreven). The album apparently explores themes of colour and light, and the sonic palette includes strings, horns and woodwinds.

For a taste of the album's rich sound, head to the bottom of the page to watch the video for the tunefully mellow "Blue Ice" (which appeared on the recent ice record). If you like what you hear, pre-order the album on CD or LP right here.

Scroll past the tracklist below to see the band's upcoming North American tour dates. The spring jaunt includes Canadian stops in Montreal and Toronto. Full international dates can be found at Shout Out Louds' website.

We'll leave you with a statement from the band about the making of the album:

In our eagerness to please no one but ourselves this time around, we decided to take on the challenge of producing our own music for the first time ever. Our close friend and sound aficionado of choice Johannes Berglund and his studio in Stockholm presented us with an ideal package for the endeavour. A secluded work space close to home, but off the earth's surface, a more than generous timeline, and the patient and brilliant sixth member we needed to get through the whole thing safely.

Together we made up a downstairs world of explosive colours, big, warm sounds and a very, very uninhibited work process. We never worried about following a clear path, trusting that the conscious decision not to worry would be enough to lead us right, and that right doesn't necessarily have to mean rational or even reasonable... We all set prestige and skillfulness aside in favour of experimentation and sheer gusto. That will probably come across live too. I don't think we've ever been this excited to take an album on tour.


Optica:

1. Sugar
2. Illusions
3. Blue Ice
4. 14th of July
5. Burn
6. Walking In Your Footsteps
7. Glasgow
8. Where You Come In
9. Hermila
10. Chasing the Sinking Sun
11. Circles
12. Destroy

Tour dates:

3/11 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
5/7 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
5/8 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
5/11 Boston, MA - Paradise
5/13 Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa
5/14 Toronto, ON - The Opera House
5/15 Detroit, MI - The Magic Bag
5/16 Chicago, IL - Metro
5/17 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
5/22 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
5/23 Los, Angeles, CA - El Rey

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