Celebration Rock

The first sound that bombards you on the new Japandroids album, Celebration Rock, is the far off explosions of high up fireworks. It sounded odd at first listen - when do you ever hear fireworks without seeing them? When you can only hear fireworks, what then do you see? I see fourths of July from years past, gone, burned all up. Running around with the sparklers of serene childhood and tossing into the air the Budweiser cans of wild youth. Of celebration. Not in a patriotic, God bless America sense. More of a Let's Celebrate Today! Tonight! This Summer! Celebrate surrounded by friends because this surely cannot last forever.



"We down our drinks in a funnel of friends,
We burn our plans down to the end!" 
from "Days of Wine and Roses"

The Japandroids album is perfectly named. Each song rings and rocks as celebrations themselves. Fist shaking, wild dancing celebrations. And even though it is a 2012 album that fits well in 2012, the songs, just like the fireworks, make me nostalgic.

The music. The songs explode in their own colors and patterns just like each singular firework that makes up the collective show. There are no subtle, sleeping songs here, just as there are no quiet fireworks. The tone is set from the booming opening song "Days of Wine and Roses", through standout tracks "Fire's Highway," "Younger Us," and "The House That Heaven Built," right up to the closer, "Continuous Thunder." It is rare to hear a band of just two people rocking so fucking loud. And you want to rock along with them. Sing along with each "WHOAH-OH-OH-OHHHHHH!"

The attack of their songs, shredding distortion, riffs and chord changes remind me of Husker-Du, with the hooks of Superchunk. The choruses remind me in the best way of the post-punk of mid to late 1980s American Underground bands, meeting the harder, louder indie rock of the 1990s. All of this combines to create one of my favorite albums of 2012.