- Douglas
Arre! Arre!โ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐จ๐โ๐๐๐๐๐๐

Earlier this year, PNKSLM released the fourth LP from Arre! Arre! titled We Ride The Universe, and folks, itโs really good. The group self-identifies as โDirty punks from the south,โ Malmรถ, Sweden. The โdirty punksโ are Katja Nielson, Lidia Damunt, Matilda ร restad, and Totta Edlund.
When Arre! Arre! won the prestigious โRock Album Of the Yearโ award at the Swedish P3 Guld Awards for 2019โs Tell Me All about Them, they inadvertently became either the most loved or most hated rock band in Sweden, after they used the majority of their acceptance speech mooning the cameras on live national TV, while simultaneously daring to critique a certain local nazi-sympathazing politician. A handful of Twitterโs โBlue Checkโ profiles were outraged and disgusted, whilst the insulted sexist teenage degenerates took to the YouTube comment sections to engage in discourse and portray their side of the issues that arose. โI donโt pay my public TV license to be subjected to seeing these f***ing left-wing fat assesโ one of the many traumatized victims eloquently disclosed.
To calm the death threats and diffuse the tensions sweeping the nation, Arre! Arre! promptly released the single โMe & My Fat Ass Friendsโ, the first taste of 2020โs Heavy Breathing, a five track EP with a very proud and unashamed theme of sexuality running heavily throughout. Punk-purists might claim the acceptance-speech hubbub is rather tame, but seeing the band lean-in to an overhyped controversy and make some solid music out of it is refreshingly commendable.
Fast forward to 2021, and a global pandemic slightly finally shifts focus somewhat for the digital elite from Arre! Arre! to other pressing matters of 5G, Chinese bats & vaccine conspiracies. With touring off the menu, the band found themselves with more time than expected to focus on We Ride The Universe.
Returning long-time collaborator Joakim Lindberg helmed production on WRTU. This relationship has allowed the band to not only maintain their core inspiration from the โ90s riot grrrl scene, but concurrently broaden their sound to include a wider range of influencesโfrom post-punk and โ60s ballads, to James Brown, to the Spice Girls.
As usual, the album has a strong underlying theme throughoutโthis time of motorbikes and female biker gangs, with the band even going to the extreme of recording local bikers driving around outside Lindbergโs studio to sample within the tracks. Combined with other new production quirks such as ABBA-inspired choirs and galloping percussion, WRTU turned into a markedly cohesive and unique album.
Opening number โRide Or Dieโ finds the band chanting their name to kick-off the chorus. Could this be to let listeners know that by their fourth record, there shouldnโt be any reason why we canโt pronounce their name with the rolling โRโโs? In fact, the first words uttered on the record are โArre! Arre!โ. Think Lil Wayne introducing himself with the ad-lib โTunechiโ before going-in, as it were.
Title track โWe Ride The Universeโ serves as a mission statement with calm, collected energy that builds to the verge of exploding and oozing into chaos, but never does. This tension could be chalked-up to the scuzzed out garage punk vocals inherent in much of the PNKSLM discography. This generates a rough-around-the-edges effect, while Katja Nielsonโs singing is quite beautiful.
The vocals on โMidnight Riderโ could be mistaken for the sharp and sultry delivery of Shannon Shaw from โ& the Clamsโ fame, or even Elle King.
โLovers Townโ has background doo-wop singing that contributes to a sense of Rockabilly class. This kind of thing is the reason why punk rock can be intergenerational by accident.
โGood Cop? Bad Cop?โ is the most socio-political track on the album, and chiefly the most traditional punk-song on WRTU. A bubble-burster by illuminating listeners abroad of rampant police brutality inherent in much of Europe. Creating a sense-of-solidarity with punks an ocean away who also live in a country diseased by an often racist, often militarized police force.
The following โCrazy Ex Girlfriendโ is in the grrrl hrrrl pocket and is reminiscent of All Hands on the Bad One-era Sleater-Kinney.
Closer โMay the Road Rise to Meet Youโ is a proper sign-off, bestowing well-wishes on the listener and reminding them that โ[theyโre] never aloneโ.
Bonus track โTime For Some Mayhemโ is just under two-minutes of chugging grrrl hrrrl goodness that has one wondering how much cool music this group has ahead of them and/or stored in the digital coffers.
The melodic and intense Arre! Arre! turned-in an all-killer no-filler album with We Ride The Universe. Anyone who engages with the music and enjoyed it on some level has already joined the Scandes/universe-traversing Anarcha-Feminist biker-gang.