The new album from Swedish band Arre! Arre!, Tell Me All About Them, is a blast. Full of good old-fashioned punk energy, the record sees the superb PNKSLM label serve up an incendiary (yet fun) record that tackles the sorry state of the world today. That this is the most political offering on the label to date is worth pointing out, even as I stress just how enjoyable this release is.
"Anthem" roars out of the gate, the sort of thing that sounds like the bands from the first wave of British punk, as well as more modern acts, while the title cut is even shorter and rougher. Elsewhere, the excellent "All Time Low" is early Siouxsie and The Banshees mixed up with the sort of buzzy guitar-hook that propelled the very first Joy Division singles to success. At their best here, Arre! Arre! convey a sense of political urgency through the mad rush of the music. "A Storm is Coming" is more subtle, the mid-tempo number echoing pioneering sides from Sleater-Kinney and earlier bands, like Penetration. This is necessarily brutal music at times, but it's also entirely catchy stuff. Arre! Arre!, their name from an important podcast in their native Sweden, breathe fire into this stuff, and a listener can barely find time to catch a breath as this rock-and-roll rockets into the future.
Arre! Arre! is out on Friday via PNKSLM.
[Photo: Matilda Bogren]