What a pleasure Howler’s debut, America Give Up, is. Already this early into 2012, we have the year’s most irresistible album, 10 songs from a band weaned on the likes of The Jesus & Mary Chain and Guided By Voices. Much like their forebears in The Strokes (how’s that for making us all feel old?), Howler has a way of distilling somewhat obvious and oversaturated influences into three-minute gems that get pretty much everything right — dig the swaying romanticism of “Too Much Blood,” or the surf-gaze of “America,” or the snarky indie rock of “Back of Your Neck” (featuring the too-good lyrics “you think we’re Bonnie and Clyde, but both of them fuckin’ died”). If you can stop playing this on repeat, you’re stronger than we are.

“High-energy teenage kicks from some young Minneapolites that echo the explosive fuzzpop of their ’80s townsmen Hüsker Dü and the Replacements. A bit like Surfer Blood with more handclaps, as Logan sez.” – Daniel Tures, Hollywood

Also available on CD.