Just in time for summer, Japandroids\u2019 Celebration Rock <\/i>(their second album, released in 2012) captures the spirit of the season in all its scorching, carpe diem glory. Beginning with the crackle of fireworks that opens the disc, this eight track, 35 minute collision of punk and reimagined classic rock burns bright but doesn\u2019t fade away; these songs will stick with you, demanding repeated listens.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Celebration Rock<\/i>\u2019s unbridled, restless energy makes sense considering the album almost didn\u2019t get made at all. The Vancouver based duo of Brian King and David Prowse came to acclaim in 2009 with the release of their debut, Post-Nothing<\/i>. They were on the brink of disbanding when the labels came calling, championing the band\u2019s raw, honest sound and their equally impassioned live shows. After touring for two years in support of Post-Nothing,<\/i> King and Prowse relocated to Nashville to settle in and try and pen the material for their follow-up. It was initially a struggle to get back into the flow, but over the course of six weeks, the pair came up with a batch of songs that surpassed even the strengths of their debut. They rejoined with producer Jesse Gander to put to disc material that would capture the passion and intimacy of their live shows \u2013 no double tracking or dubbing, just rock n\u2019 roll in its purest form. <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what Celebration Rock <\/i>has in spades: dynamic, furious, honest and melodic rock songs, songs that capture that fleeting summer light and serve as an apt metaphor for the need to live life to its fullest while you still can. This attitude is no better emblemized than in the album\u2019s lead single, \u201cThe House That Heaven Built,\u201d a fist-pumping call to arms that swells with raucous instrumentation and an indelible chorus: \u201cWhen they love you (and they will) \/ Tell them all they\u2019ll love in my shadow \/ And if they try to slow you down \/ Tell them all to go to hell.\u201d King\u2019s vocals are a raw, stripped-bare shout amid the \u201coh oh oh\u201ds, and it\u2019s a blitzkrieg of sound anchored by the cracked poetry of the lyrics.<\/p>\n
Song after song, Japandroids create a unique amalgam of sound, a mash-up of loose, ramshackle garage rock, lush song structures, and choruses that have a pop sensibility, inspiring you to sing along out of the window of a fast moving car. Opener \u201cThe Night Of Wine And Roses\u201d is at once blistering and openhearted, while \u201cFire\u2019s Highway\u201d and \u201cEvil\u2019s Sway\u201d continue the tone of fiery lyrics and Prowse\u2019s breakneck drumming. Meanwhile, \u201cFor The Love Of Ivy\u201d is a well-chosen Gun Club\u2019s cover, stretching their sound into the menacing spit of punk fury that provides a nice diversion from wearing their hearts on their sleeves and yowling into the stratosphere. <\/p>\n
And yet, this idea that rock is salvation, that a four-minute crash of cranked-up guitars and a glorious chorus are enough to make life worth living comes through so strongly in the Japandroids\u2019 music that it\u2019s hard not to go along with it. On \u201cYounger Us,\u201d King implores, \u201cGimme that night you were already in bed \/ Said \u2018Fuck it \/ Got up to drink with me instead,\u201d and it\u2019s a fascinating dynamic between being young enough to know that the party is still raging but growing wise to the fact that it won\u2019t last forever \u2013 but until that light finally fades, we\u2019re gonna keep living. When Celebration Rock <\/i>comes to its glorious end on \u201cContinuous Thunder,\u201d it\u2019s not in a careening whirl of more frantic rock. Instead, the pace is slowed down, reflective, quenching the flames for a moment to ponder: \u201cIf I had all of the answers \/ And you had the body you wanted \/ Would we love with a legendary fire?\u201d It\u2019s a perfect, fitting end, showing the growth and maturity of Japandroids\u2019 ethos. <\/p>\n
Celebration Rock <\/i>strikes a fine balance among all its elements and never overstays its welcome; instead, it\u2019s a record that should be listened to over and over. Its thirty-five minute runtime is perfect, allowing Japandroids to flesh out their sound without tipping the balance into an overkill of fire-related metaphors. As the album fades out in a sea of fireworks just as it opened, there is the sense that we\u2019ve arrived somewhere different, destined to seize the fading light while it\u2019s still shining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":31982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9411],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43715","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-japandroids","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43715"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}