Five years after the release of its fifth studio album “Ease My Mind,” Swedish pop band Shout Out Louds announced their long-awaited follow up “House,” along with a U.S. tour in May.

For 20 years, the band has experimented with an array of sounds from the peppy, guitar-oriented “Howl Howl Gaff” to the relaxed, string heavy “Optica.” “House” represents a sense of full-fledged maturity for the group.

Frontman Adam Olenius describes this album as “local.” Most of the songs on “House” were written and ready for production just before the height of COVID, which prevented the group from finishing the album that year. “House” represents being tied to a singular space.

“Even though the lyrics were written before the pandemic, I was in this smaller space,” Olenius said. “You create a world where you’re the only hard drive to save stuff to.”

“House” presents an industrial tone that takes inspiration from dance music, minimalism and new wave. The album’s opening track and first single, “As Far Away As Possible,” exemplifies the moody and restless nature that embodies the entire album. The song opens with frenetic, one-note guitars that take a distinct inspiration from bands like New Order.

The opening track follows the emotional tone of the album, but its full-bodied composition is an outlier in terms of sound. 

“High As a Kite,” the second single released in 2021, gives listeners a glimpse to the stripped-back setting that makes up a Shout Out Louds live show. The minimal use of instruments and simple production imitates the group’s dynamic in concert. Keeping with the album’s theme, “High As a Kite” is about accepting one’s circumstances and falling back in love with the mundane.

“It’s sort of the opposite of ‘As Far Away As Possible,’ where you’re walking down the exact

same street but now you’re in love with everything,” Olenius said. 

Olenius takes a backseat on the bittersweet track “Sky and I (Himlen).” Keyboardist Bebban Stenborg offers lush, lead vocals over cold and dreamy instrumentals. The track follows the theme of isolation and being an outsider looking in at the world. 

Shout Out Louds will return to the U.S. in late spring for the first time since 2017. After a Swedish tour through March and April, the group will make their first U.S. appearance in Seattle, Washington, on May 7. On May 10, the group will play at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. 

“It feels important to us to travel where we can with our music,” Olenius said. “It’s gonna be in smaller clubs than we’re used to, but it’s gonna be fun. It’ll be like the early days.”

Olenius is excited to re-experience the post-pandemic “band culture.” Venues that were often sold out in Sweden now sometimes struggle to sell enough tickets, but the opposite is true for the states.

 “It’s more of a big deal to go out and see a band in Sweden while maybe in the U.S. it’s more ‘go out for a few drinks and see a band.’ We don’t really have that culture over here,” Olenius said.

“House” will be released Feb. 18 on vinyl, CD and digital platforms. Shout Out Louds will host an album listening party livestream on Feb. 19. The stream is available on their website and will be live at noon PST. 

Michaela Harris can be reached at [email protected] and @MichaelaRH21 on Twitter.