Album of the Week: Japandroids got something with Post-Nothing

There’s out-of-the-blue greatness, like a Radiohead or Arcade Fire; and then there’s what I’ll call composite greatness, an artist that seems to take a sound or a bunch of sounds that others are doing and just does it better. That’s the category Japandroids falls into, the B.C. drums-and-guitar shout-rock duo and creators of best-song-of-the-year candidate “Young Hearts Spark Fire.” At first, Japandroids sound like any of the other noisy lo-fi garage bands out there right now (and there are a *lot* of them). But they’re a little more punk, a little more blues, and their hooks are just that bit sharper. They’re still slackers – which is a lo-fi prerequisite – with songs like “Rockers East Vancouver” about a drunken rock scene gone bad; or the terrific “Wet Hair,” about an irresistible girl with wet hair. But Japandroids don’t let a lazy attitude translate into an unfocussed album. Post-Nothing comprises eight songs, barely a full record, and it’s a near-perfect amount – anything more would become a bore. A-

Japandroids: Young Hearts Spark Fire (from RCRD LBL)
from the album Post-Nothing
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