Japandroids

Celebration Rock Polyvinyl****

The best rock music often comes in those moments when the players express a belief that what they’re doing is sometimes more important than life or death. You’ll hear many such moments on Celebration Rock, an album awash with fantastic turbulence and joy.

If their Post-Nothing debut was about raging against the machine and putting blood in the music, this is where Brian King and David Prowse sketch a new punk dream. You'll hear flashes throughout of where the Vancouver band have gone for soundings – The Replacements, Husker Du, Bruce Springsteen – but it's the urgency with which they tackle songs such as the The House that Heaven Built which leaves a brilliant blur behind. Others have tacked on new chapters to the blue-collar rock handbook in recent times, but few have done so with the beautiful, honest craft displayed here. japandroids.com

Download tracks:The House that Heaven Built, The Nights of Wine and Roses, Younger Us