The Sounds weren’t bluffing when they entitled their second album Dying To Say This To You. Barcelona’s Apolo hosts the quintet’s first European tour date away from their home turf of Sweden, and witnesses them bursting on stage in full force. But just what is it they so desperately want to share? Speedy bass rhythms accompany lead singer Maja Ivarsson’s stomping entrance on stage; she leans down, dipping her floppy blonde undercut into the faces of unsuspecting front-rowers and utters… “Come on you ballsuckers!” It’s was the perfect intro, both to the show and to what this Swedish outfit have become. Since their debut album of 2002, Living In America, The Sounds have taken their music up a notch, to reach beyond their ‘90s aerobic work out power tunes. In essence, they’ve done America, matured, and a hell of a lot dirtier.

Among heavy bass chords, shiny synthesisers and deep-penetrating drum beats, Ivarrson’s full-throated vocals are sharp enough to cut the room. ‘Painted By Numbers’ opens the show, and exemplifies just what The Sounds are now capable of. Oscillating between loud, crashing guitars and quieter synthesiser solos, the song’s shifting levels are mirrored by Ivarsson’s own course on stage. She leaps and rolls and finally, once the crowd has warmed to her, she throws herself off stage and into the pit of sweaty, bopping fans.

Along with a collective ego big enough to roll out of the Apolo theatre solo, the sassy Swedes maintain a gripping stage presence throughout. I find myself hooked, not only in anticipation of witnessing Ivarsson’s next butt-kicking stunt but also by each member’s sleek and fixating individual performance. Each one is like a muscular machine, pumping out synth-pop beats like it was a logical operation. Jesper Anderberg leaves his synthesiser twice: the first to join Felix Rodriguez in a rocking duet on soft pad drums, the skeletal pair moving like they were dying to play this to us; the second is to toss the vocal back and forth with Ivarsson in a boy versus girl face-off during ‘Hurt You’. Think Grease and you’re not far off – the dancing quiffs only enhance the image in my mind.

What with bicep tenses between tracks and protruding quads, the entire set is energetic enough to draw breath from their fittest of fans. Ivarsson, inevitably the sergeant major of this muscular army, belts out “Don’t stop pushing now” from her bare-footed and precarious position on top of the drum kit, and stop we most certainly don’t. Not because the rock-hard Ivarsson demanded it, but because the song in question, Tony The Beat, is a feel-good beats anthem, sexy and powerful enough to stir even the most mundane of bods into a frenzy on the dance floor.

Their tunes may not be lyrically captivating, but The Sounds sure put on a seamless show, reaching class-A moments of high-voltage electro pop full of energised entertainment value.