Published on June 18th, 2012 | by greg

Japandroids: Celebration Rock:: Review

Dave Prowse and Brian King are Japandroids and they are responsible for providing your summer soundtrack. Prowse and King are long-time friends from Vancouver who are capable of wringing out arena rock songs as a duo on their sophomore album Celebration Rock. Celebration Rock is just that too, a refreshing blast of smart rock and roll that’s not ashamed to wear its heart triumphantly on its sweaty sleeve. Celebration Rock is music for those upcoming hazy, humid days when you can’t bear to be bothered with anything but a reprieve from the daily grind.

Celebration Rock is a joy to listen to as it manages to cover several different traditional rock themes within its 8 tracks and 35 minute time frame. Nostalgia is key on Celebration Rock as relationships begin, end and the possibilities seem endless. Just as you’re settling in on one particular emotion, Japandroids hyperactively shift to the next all the while kicking up dust in their path. Celebration Rock opens with the sound of fireworks on the exultant “The Night of Wine and Roses” where Japandroids reminisces on past victories and glories yet to come. “Fire’s Highway” is a vigorous track about life on the road that gives the “whoaahs” a workout.

Brian King’s guitar tone on the frenetic “Evil’s Sway” is killer and seques naturally to the cover of The Gun Club’s “For the Love of Ivy,” which hits like a freight train. “Adrenaline Nightshift” is pure hi-energy and how could it not be? “Younger Us” is a slower and more reflective track that is not mawkish and gracefully dissolves into a swath of guitar fuzz. Penultimate track, “The House That Heaven Built” is the first single from the album and rightfully so. “The House That Heaven Built” is a declaration of truth with shades of The Replacements thrown in. “The House That Heaven Built” contains the direct sentiment “…if they try to slow you down, tell them all to go hell” which should receive mass applause whenever its played live. The slow fade of “Continuous Thunder” gradually shuts down the proceedings but not before exiting to a reprise of fireworks.

Celebration Rock is an album that rewards on multiple listens and deserves to be played loudly.

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