Firstly, a quick clarification is needed: electro-punk-rock-beard-surrealism trio Quit Your Dayjob actually come from Sweden. Therefore, their having a problem with the place isn’t xenophobic – on the contrary, it’s practically a patriotic necessity. So the ardent Swedophiles among you can put down your pens and cancel those angry e-mails (and the more confused among your number can put down the root vegetables and step away from the potato gun…), ‘cause it’s perfectly ethical for you to like this band.
And once you’ve got past the off-putting Wackiness! and Freaksome Dudes! aspects of the press release, you might well do just that. Sweden We Got A Problem is slightly more restrained than QYDJ’s self-titled EP from 2004, and the rock/electro ratios have been reversed so that the listener now thinks rock first and techno second. But the basic formula of very, very short songs (16 of the buggers in half an hour) and lyrics consisting of somewhat nonsensical slogans repeated over and over again to the backing of a rhythmic electro-rock din remains the same. It’s loud and beat heavy and very fast and features a lot of bubbling electro noises and wordless horror-film vocal howls. And it’s very good, if very simplistic, fun, with the kind of concentrated silliness which hints at some rather daft people wishing to cleanse a lot of office hours from their system.
In short, Sweden, We Have A Problem sounds like a Cramps tribute band formed by synth-playing orang-utans. And if a thousand apes played a thousand instruments for a thousand years, they might well come up with something quite similar to QYDJ’s 'I Need A Tour Guide For My Own Head'. Or they might produce an electro-rock opera version of the complete works of Shakespeare. Depends whether or not they’re of a traditionalist mindset, I suppose.