Howler’s sophomore record, World of Joy, is a jolting rock ‘n’ roll hodgepodge that pays tribute to all the band’s favorites. “The record is supposed to be almost like a jukebox at some sloppy bar in Minneapolis playing things like: Thin Lizzy, The Replacements, The Modern Lovers, Kiss, The Smiths, The Stooges, and other randomly assorted bands. It’s a tribute to our love of rock ‘n’ roll and to the lineage of that genre we so admire,” Gatesmith recently explained. Dominated by messy but not sloppy pop-punk, Howler let it all hang out in an album that repeatedly tells us to “do whatever you want,” which is precisely what they did.
Setting the scene, “Al’s Corral” is a Green Day-esque tribute to their favorite Minneapolis bar, which is the source of inspiration for much of the album’s content. World of Joy was written with the specific world of “the Midwest dive bar, and youth culture around those places”, so there are heaps of heavy-heartedness, followed by heavy drinking, followed by doing whatever the hell they want. Describing the sound, Gatesmith referenced Husker Du, the entire 80s era, and The Byrds, saying that there’s a time and a place for pretentiousness, but that World of Joy is fueled more by a sense of “bratty rock ‘n’ roll” than anything else.
Howler is fantastic at what they do, which is writing highly kinetic punk anthems. Cranking the distortion to the max for nearly every second of every song, World of Joy is the type of album that sounds loud even when you turn the volume way down. Gatesmith’s gruff delivery ensures constant blows to the gut, although they flip the punk script a few times, specifically on “Aphorismic Wasteland Blues” and “Here’s The Itch That Creeps Through My Skull.” With these two songs they surprise us by sounding way more like The Smiths than we would have anticipated — “Don’t Wanna” contains the line “you don’t have to listen to The Smiths if you don’t want to” in an attempted poke at indie cliches. Other high points include the sneering of “Don’t Wanna”, the eerie guitar texturing on “Yacht Boys”, and the earworm/adorable chorus on “Louise”.
Howler’s debut struck us hard two years ago for its perfect execution of surf punk, but World of Joy moves them further into frenetic punk territory, the beach all but forgotten in the blurred glow of late-night neon lights. The album is very much what the band wanted it to be — a noisy tribute to a bunch of their rock and roll heroes–so is quite a smash in that sense. World of Joy is high-voltage yet accessible, making it a must hear for fans of the genre.
