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Feb 26, 2013Thanks to the production, the overall strength of the songs, and the quietly intense energy the bandmembers put into their performances, Optica is a welcome return to form and solidifies Shout Out Louds' position as one of the best indie pop bands of their era.
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Alternative PressFeb 26, 2013It might not be Disintegration, but Optica confirms these Swedes as worthy acolytes. [Mar 2013, p.93]
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Feb 27, 2013Shout Out Louds have produced a great, light-hearted and warm album that will lift your spirits, mellow you out and make you dance.
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Feb 27, 2013With the jazz-flute-driven “Walking In Your Footsteps” rounding out the highlights, it’s these tracks that radiate the most, but the whole LP serves as a welcome illumination of the otherwise abandoned dance floor we call February.
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Feb 26, 2013There’s palpable relief when ‘Sugar’ gets proceedings underway and the thinking is all; 'Yes, Shout Out Louds, yes, this is how you start a record'--no dilly, precious little dally, instead wham-bam-slam straight into this behemoth of a pop tune.
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Mar 28, 2013Another collection of pop spells that beguile...here’s to at least 10 more years.
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MagnetMar 15, 2013It boasts Wembley-sized sound and a few huge singles that aspire to confuse Stockholm for a UK colony. [No. 96, p.59]
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Apr 29, 2013OK, at Disneyland. Yes, on drugs.
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Mar 26, 2013For the most part, though, Shout Out Louds match their musical grandeur with emotional grandeur. And messy romanticism is their natural milieu.
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Feb 26, 2013Much like its predecessor, Optica's pervasive mildness doesn't give you much to latch onto.
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Mar 8, 2013The songs on Optica are a second, more confident assertion of this workmanlike incarnation of the band, but they still feel impermeable.
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Q MagazineMay 13, 2013Functional yet uninspiring, Optica is pop as Ikea catalog. [Jun 2013, p.104]
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Feb 27, 2013The better they’ve gotten at refining their craft, at writing the perfect chorus and combining them seamlessly with organic, vivid sonics, the further away they’ve gotten from the wounded empathy that drove their earlier records. At least ice burns. Optica too often feels like nothing at all.
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Feb 26, 2013Some Shout Out Louds songs are merely pleasant, but others--like Optica’s “14th Of July”--are a real rush, building from stinging art-funk to choruses that erupt, spectacularly.
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May 9, 2013In the end, it’s all a little too demure to really shout out loud about.
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Apr 26, 2013For fans of expertly crafted summer toe-tappers, its gifts are ample enough for a summer fling, although perhaps few will be looking for more.
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Feb 28, 2013Bigger, richer, and more fun than its predecessor, Optica drips with hyperactive lyrics, icy synths, and string arrangements.