The songs were vibrant, alive, a celebration, yes, of rock ‘n roll, built on a fairly simple alchemical reaction between garage punk and heartland rock. Celebration Rock was hardly a revolution after 2009 debut Post-Nothing if anything, the anthems were louder, the band was looser, the girls were feistier and the drinking was more or less the same, yet you rarely felt as if Japandroids were taking you for granted. It’s hard to put a finger on just where Japandroids went wrong. A lyric like “I used to be good but now I’m bad,” from the title track? Well, I’d probably have to be a fair bit drunker to appreciate that one. A lyric like “must get to France / so we can French kiss some French girls” is stupid and fun, and there’s that sweaty wink amid the guileless sincerity, punctuated by a band that sounded like they could defeat all the evil of the world with just a guitar, a drum set, and the lack of anything approaching irony. Brian King’s infectious, vein-bulging yelps and David Prowse’s blistering skin work, the sound of a unit of artillery set off by one man, are enough to make even the most cynical child of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s unironically raise their clenched fist. How many Pabst-in-the-air anthems can you stomach in one sitting? At a Japandroids show, this is generally a rhetorical question. Strangely inert for a band that practically built their brand on hurtling recklessly forward, Near to the Wild Heart of Life is the sound of a comfortable band stretching the limits of their sound and their fans’ goodwill.
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