The Hold Steady had an interesting arc: begining as a gritty, baladic band they pushed their sound into epic hooks and shoutalong choruses, seemingly as an overt move to create more concert-ready music. And why not? The guys seem at home on stage, and what better place to put their rock and roll populism into practice? But it never quite worked for them, a band that started so grounded struggled to really soar.
Japandroids though, especially on this album, have no such problems. Listening to this album you can just nearly hear drunken dudes shouting along with the words, feel the jumping, stomping, head shaking the chords inspire. And it works! The energy here is contagious, infectious, and liable to send you googling "japandroids tour dates" before you know it.
As you might expect, its a little exhausting, but its a trick the album pulls off so well you'd have to be a harder-hearted man than I to resist it 4/5
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