QUIT YOUR DAYJOB - Sweden, We Got A Problem

After their appearance at the Estragon Summer Festival

in Bologna this past summer, people in Italy have finally started talking about

Quit Your Dayjob. Odd that nobody had noticed them sooner, seeing as

abroad, between the US, the UK and their native Sweden, someone had already

tried to pin the label of "the new Devo" on them. The comparison is fairly

obvious, really: just listen to a bit of their first, self-titled EP (2004), for

instance "Look! A Dollar", which whetted the appetite of an entire

audience with its irresistible, off-the-wall appeal.

Well then,

they've finally arrived at their debut album, in the manner most fitting for them, in order to

in some ways the most obvious: eighteen tracks, none longer than two minutes, in which

crazed, exasperating riffs pile up, woven together by both guitar and

synth, for an experience that's comic and devastating at the same time.

Too bad that

over the long haul (loosely speaking, since it's barely half an hour), the intensity

packed into the EP's few tracks tends to dissipate a little

(especially toward the end it can feel a bit heavy), but overall “Sweden,

We Got A Problem” can be called a record that lives up to expectations.

It opens with “Banzai Butterfly”, introduced by a burst of feedback that

soon gives way to a guitar riff fired off at full speed: before

you even grasp what's happened, what that kind of crazed

express train hurtling past your ears actually was, it's already

gone. Next up is the title track, which unleashes a formidable synth riff

and, with its lopsided, sing-song funk, recalls the early Talking Heads; “Sperms Are

Germs” is a clever rewrite of “Freaks Are Out” (from their first EP), while

"Evil Ray" could have come out of a session by Velvet Underground

high on heroin, with a completely wasted John Cale on vocals.

Si

it continues with "Pissing On A Panda", already known for having been released as

a single in 2004 (and until recently available as a free download from the band's website),

before reaching the biting "Brain In Vain", screamed over a riff

as basic as it is effective, with an attitude worthy of the best Iggy Pop.

The almost western-like atmospheres

of "E-Bay Ghetto" are just around the corner and recall quite a bit the already mentioned "Look!

A Dollar" (the guitar sounds like it's really the same one). "Man Power" is an

epically danceable track that keeps repeating the title over a grandiose,

pulsing riff, propped up by flawless disco drumming; "Cities Suck" is a

nihilistic interlude that again resembles "Look! A Dollar", but in

no time at all we're already at the highly enjoyable "Erase My Face", a violent invective against a

synthetic landscape.

The track with the most dancefloor appeal is definitely

the irresistible "Vlado Video", a ride worthy of Byrne and co. in a moment

of madness, powerful and clumsy as a giant polka-dotted mammoth in yellow and pink.

"Shemale Godzilla" sounds like a huge raspberry blown at all dark-wave, while "Touch+Go" is a

little masterpiece, with a basic rock'n'roll riff played in an

exasperating way by the usual synth. "I Need A Tourguide For My Own Head" is rather

forgettable, while "Subhumanist" takes on the shape of a true

manifesto of the band's style, driven by an electronic drum beat over

which the digressions of synth, guitar and voice (which converses with a choir in a

structure reminiscent of certain Art of Noise patchworks) repeat themselves

in the fleeting, empty eternity of a minute and a half.

"2 Face" has going for

it a tribal rhythm and a particularly brilliant riff; closing the album is

the feedback of "(Ove 2)", the second part of a similar interlude lost in the

nervous sequence of tracks. But it doesn't end there: in fact the Quit Your

Dayjob always want to have the last word, and they close the record with a

a rather pointless ghost track.

Now, on a surface listen

this album might seem (not entirely without reason) to be "all the same", but one

couldn't have expected anything different from a band that has already built up a

small cult following, both at home and in the international scene it has

recently entered. And, all things considered, it's a good album: let's just hope

the story doesn't end here, and that the band finds some new and

unusual outlet for its ideas, because after these eighteen tracks, one can

quite fairly admit that their style has been explored far and wide, and

gone over more than once.

Ride the wave of great music

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30/04/2026