Japandroids – Celebration Rock

Like everyone else who heard their breakthrough record Post-Nothing, I fell in love with Japandroids on my first listen. These guys make that raw, loud noise that could only come from two guys who are giving it their all. Their efforts reign true again with their newest release, and aptly named, Celebration Rock.

Whats great about this release, is that it really does feel that their sound has matured since their first release, but still has maintained its juvenile reckless abandon. This album really inspires you to sprint down the street in the rain, knock stuff over and celebrate having zero agenda. “The House That Heaven Built”, can easily be an anthem for the youth much like “Wet Hair” was off of Post-Nothing. On that note, a few of the songs off this album felt a little too similar to some of the releases from Post-Nothing. “Fire’s Highway”, for example, sounds quite a bit like “Young Heart’s Spark Fire”. Now you could argue this is as a negative, but realistically, fans will see this as them being faithful to their sound that makes them distinguishable from other bands in the first place.

Three years after they broke on the scene its clear they are going to continue pumping out hard hitting noise rock, and they are going to keep doing it without a bassist. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Don’t ever change Japandroids.