Attention to Detail: Shout Out Louds

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THE BAND NAME "SHOUT OUT LOUDS" once fit the Swedish quintet like a comfy T-shirt. So did the title of the group's first album, "Howl Howl Gaff Gaff," which brimmed with peppy, punchy indie-rock.

With the lovely new "Our Ill Wills" (Merge), however, the Shout Out Louds don't sound like kids crashing their way through uninhibited pop songs; this recording is the work of a band skillfully maneuvering its way through mature melodies and moods.

The voice of singer-songwriter Adam Olenius has changed, too; it now recalls the slightly hurt yowl of The Cure's Robert Smith, though it's a mere coincidence.

"I wanted to sing like Neil Young when we started the band," Olenius said. "I liked his really high-pitched voice, and it suited my voice. But after all the touring, you get to know your voice more. ['Our Ill Wills'] had more diversity in the way I sing."

The focused music on "Our Ill Wills" incorporates multiple layers of instruments, and percussion is wedged into what are essentially indie-pop folk songs.

"This album is very influenced by rhythms and drums and how dance music is arranged," Olenius said. "We wanted this record to sound more cinematic. … Alternative rock bands have the same kind of production, with guitars in front. We wanted to add more drums and rhythms and piano and strings. Work more on details so you could hear every little thing. ... There's more air in it."

But it wasn't just dance music that helped the Shout Out Louds transform musically — and it wasn't The Cure, either.

"We wanted to get away from that lo-fi and do more of that classic sound," Olenius said. "I was listening to a lot of Tom Waits, Paul Simon; we listened to a lot of Fleetwood Mac and early, early Pet Shop Boys in the studio.

"I worked more on the lyrics and the melodies this time. We arranged and rehearsed the songs a lot," he said. "I was more honest when I wrote this album. You write about the things you don't want to talk about with people — your own mistakes and all that."

Sounds like a grown-up.

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Johnossi and Nico Vega, Sun., 10 p.m., $15; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)