4 keepers
keeper avg .500
After the smash success of their debut album "Post-Nothing" (2009) Japandriods appear to have doubled-down on their approach, recording at the same studio and with the same label for their follow-up. And as one critic enumerates, the "volume, bombast, group-shouted vocals, fast-strummed chords" and "smashing drums" that characterize the genre and that comprise the debut album are all here again. They've done it with a lot more with those elements this time around though, and I'm definitely in the camp that believes that "Celebration Rock" is a massive improvement over its predecessor.
From the get-go, the massive riff-monster "The Nights of Wine and Roses"***** feels like the punk anthem they were going for the first time around, while the device of answering their own fears with a defensive declaration is charmingly honest. I think they just mastered the art of the hook, and this album has bunches of them, such as the clanging response to each line in "Evil's Sway"****, the super-melodic riff that powers "Adrenaline Nightshift"****, and the infectious "oh,oh,oh" pre-chorus of "The House That Heaven Built"****. Nothing major wrong with the rest of the tracks except they're structurally a bit more repetitive and seem less interesting. That and their cover of the classic psychobilly "For the Love of Ivy" (The Gun Club, 1981) doesn't equal the original.
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