An album that
has nonstop energy and a seemingly endless supply of party hats.
You’re drunk at the bar,
alone, slowly passing out. You’ve suddenly grown an extra pair of hands and you
have two empty beer bottles instead of one. The people on the dance floor seem
to have doubled and the strobe lights are nauseating. All you want to do is put
your head down and go to sleep right where you are...
Japandroids are the
proverbial friend that slaps you across the face and buys you another drink.
They are that person of excess, the one who drinks too much, smokes too much,
and sleeps with his best friend’s girlfriend. Japandroids know how to party...
and they party a lot. And that’s ultimately what Celebration Rock is – an album that has nonstop energy and a
seemingly endless supply of party hats. “The Nights of Wine and Roses” begins proceedings
promisingly and the lyrics immediately reflect the duo’s attitude to life: “Long lit up tonight and still drinking /
Don’t we have anything to live for? / Well of course we do / But till they come
true / We’re drinking.”
“Fire’s Highway” is the first
real highlight, with one of the catchiest choruses on the album and those
outrageous “oh-oh-oh’s” that simply demand that your fist be raised high in the
air. But like that friend that everyone has, “Evil’s Sway” comes along and you
realise that the party isn’t going to stop anytime soon. If there’s one
criticism that has plagued Japandroids it is this; every song follows the same
pattern and has just as much fun as the song before it. First single “Younger
Us” would appear on most records as the upbeat opener (provided any other
record could actually replicate the sheer liveliness shown here) but here it
sits just before penultimate track “The House That Heaven Built”, which also
happens to be the best song on the album. For the first time on Celebration Rock you get the impression
that maybe there’s just a hint of sadness behind all the revelry. Not that the
formula really changes much but for once the lyrics don’t seem quite as
straightforward as they did before. “It’s
a lifeless life / With no fixed address to give / But you’re not mine to die
for anymore / So I must live.”
Closing track “Continuous
Thunder” slows things down just enough for you to catch your breath at the end
of an exhausting ride. The album is thankfully short and doesn’t overstay its
welcome which works in its favour; any longer and it would lose a lot of its
effectiveness. Even so, you may find that the repetitive nature of the songs
gets tiring before then end. But then again, if you’re the friend buying more
drinks this is the soundtrack to the perfect night.
Rating: 7/10
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