Howler:America Give Up

Tags: album review, America Give Up, ear dropps, Howler, Jordan Gatesmith, Rough Trade, The Strokes

Rough Trade; 2012
Dropped by Robert Miller

If the Beach Boys were around today, and they did a collaboration with The Strokes, which was produced by Arctic Monkey’s producer James Ford, Howler’s America Give Up would most likely sound very, very similar to that band. The young Minnesota rock outfit (with lead singer Jordan Gatesmith being only 19) are obviously influenced by a stream of garage indie bands whose names often start with “The” and are proceeded with random objects, happenings and health issues. The Vaccines, The Black Keys, The Hold Steady, The Raconteurs, The Hives and many more show some signs of influence throughout this album, sometimes charmingly, sometimes lazily.

America Give Up takes the phrase “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” to new heights. If “Told You Once” could sound any more like “Someday,” it would be near plagiarism. And the fact that Gatesmith sounds like he’s purposefully feeding off of Julian Casablancas doesn’t exactly make it better. Instead, it makes it feel like a cheap knockoff of what has already been mastered nearly a decade ago. I could go on and on with comparisons and analogies, but you can only reference Arctic Monkeys’ dance-floor vibe, Casablancas’ drawling vocals and the lo-fi of Guided by Voices so many times before this review becomes nothing more than a matching game.

Then again, there’s something in America Give Up that holds a tighter grip on listeners than Gatesmith’s hands around a Strokes’ record. They pull quite a bit from older bands, as well. There’s a bit of a sunny Beach-Boys era spring in their step, such as with the hand claps on “Beach Sluts,” and the good ol’ Chuck Berry rock’n’roll sways back and forth along “America.” There’s something to be said about the swing quality of Howler’s throwback sound. And when the album ends with the droning “Free Drunk” and the aggressive “Black Lagoon,” you wonder where the first half of the album was even intending to go in the first place.

But more often than not, Howler settles for a mere reflection of past bands, rather than a reinvention. Their mottled approach to rock’n’roll feels like a major clothing line for teenagers wishing they could rebel. The jeans may look faded and torn, but really, the manufacturer just wanted it to look that way from the get-go. There’s a lack of maturity and experience in America Give Up that you’re better off finding elsewhere. That’s not to say that Howler can’t improve on it—they just need to break out of the glazy-eyed “we’re in a rock band” mentality and just play the goddamn riffs.

Fri Feb 3

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Howler:America Give Up

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