Japandroids: Celebration Rock
Japandroids: Celebration Rock-- If you are currently searching for the perfect album to provide the seamless soundtrack of your summer, look no further. With the release of their second full-length album earlier this month, Japandroids create an all-encompassing album perfect for long nights and crazy days. The 8 songs on Celebration Rock embody the type of CD you blast through your speakers while driving around town, yet with its gloomy themes and general feeling of desolation it shows true artistry. Originally from Canada, it is hard to envision Japandroids as just two people. Using simply a guitar, drum set and their voices, Brian King and David Prowse somehow manage to create a sound so immense they are on par with bands three times their size. Before releasing Celebration Rock, Japandroids self-released two EPs and gained critical acclaim for their debut album, Post-Nothing.
Not only is their newest album universal in its themes, the more that you listen to Celebration Rock, the more its true depth comes to light. Unraveling a dichotomy in its truest from, the first five songs have serious undertones with recurring imagery of fiery hell, lost souls and death. And by using just one song, an appreciable shift in the album can be felt. ‘Younger Us’ redirects the inherent focus of the final three songs. This renewal pleads: “Give me that naked new skin rush”. In ‘The House That Heaven Built’ the positive transformation is evident through lyrics of evil disappearing and dying. The journey that this band leads us through compels its listeners to find innocence again and regains something that was lost long ago; it gives us a sense of hope.
This culminates in the final song on the record, selected with the fundamental responsibility of leaving its listeners with something to remember them by. This particular last song, ‘Continuous Thunder’, is the only logical choice. This anthem resounds: “Singing out loud, like continuous thunder”. And then the album finishes just as it began: With the sound of fireworks in the distance…8.75/10