From Local H to Jeff The Brotherhood, with a stop somewhere for White Stripes and Black Keys (to Jahn Xavier band come to think of it), the modern hard rock duo is alive and well and living in the studio where two is enough.
Japandroids second album, Celebration Rock, is a hard heating powerpop conglom hidden as a punk rock howzit: it has all the ambition anybody can muster nowadays, and Brian King (guitar, vocals) and David Prowse (drums, vocals) and the clang meets the bang where the yelp dares to tread on at least a handful of these classic rock pop gems.
From the opening scattershot explosions to the thunderous cracker barrel conclusion, this is 35 minutes of the real thing that three minutes you against the door with some mighty fine punk pop classics. The wonderfully named "Adrenaline Nightshift" is all Pete Townsend power barrel riffs and stampeding drums matched to a powerful Springsteen for the still to be initiated to the night melody. One of the best songs of the year, it isn't even he best song on the album.
That would be the place setting "The House That Heaven Built" -all disturbia suburbia and lost love with a line worthy of Titus Andronicus, "if they try to pull you down, tell them all to go to hell", In a different world, that line enough would be sufficient to push em onto the Hot 100 (otherwise known as the place rock came to die). Japandroids can get a little dense where transparency would do em better. And even at a spritely slightly over half hour, it gets a bit samey.
But Japandroids are a good band and the album will do till the new Titus arrives.
Grade: B+