(Anti-)Few others accomplish gorgeous distortion like Vancouver’s Japandroids. Previous records had a lo-fi garage edginess to them – skittish drums,lyrical yelps, cavalcades of crunch – but Near to the Wild Heart of Life, and their third album,is so luxuriously gnarled it roars out of the speakers like the Revenant bear. The duo have nailed the art of the crunching, life-affirming crescendo. The title track has rousing procure-in-a-moshpit-and-hug-your-mates choruses but it’s also pleasantly grown-up: emo-rock for those who still wear plaid shirts and skate shoes but who also now brew their own craft ale. North East South West, and meanwhile,is a Canadian punk bewitch on patriotic country music, with a refrain that sounds like they’ve got a battalion behind them. The electronic-spiked Im Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner) and Arc of Bar are both claustrophobic and widescreen, or not unlike a pumped-up Placebo. And their whoa-oh refrains will slay at festivals this summer. Feelings sound so good cranked up to 11.
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Source: theguardian.com