Lil" B Gives An Update on Frank Ocean"s Album
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For those of us who obsess over long-gestating (and possibly even nonexistent) albums, the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. First, Frank Ocean (or somebody in Oceans camp) suggested that the follow-up to 2012s Channel Orange would soon appear on Apple Music, though so far it hasnt happened, which has apparently ruined a lot of lives out there. Then, Bon Iver previewed their new (kinda bonkers!) album, 22, A Million, the bands first since 2011s Bon Iver, Bon Iver, at last weeks Eaux Claires festival, set for late September. Finally, theres Japandroids, a two-man punk band from Vancouver thats less famous than Ocean or Bon Iver, but who nonetheless reignited widespread speculation over a sequel to 2012s Celebration Rock after announcing their first tour in three years last week.
Japandroids hasnt promised any new music yet, but given the wait for Celebration Rock which came out one month before Channel Orange, back when only one of the Rae Sremmund dudes was old enough to vote any sign of life from this otherwise M.I.A. band is reason for hope. A new Japandroids record already seems well overdue. After all, the duo are not meticulous artistes like Ocean or Bon Ivers Justin Vernon. Whatever the mannered soundscapes of Channel Orange and Bon Iver, Bon Iver are intended to signify, Celebration Rock represents the opposite. Fire it up, and Celebration Rock is incapable of purring softly; from the start, it roars with overpowering gusto. Its a flinty machine that runs on cheap power chords and bargain-basement drum fills, with cast-iron gears lubricated with gallons of skunky beer.
(Perhaps, Im being overly wordy here. To properly express my enthusiasm for a new Japandroids album, it would be better if I could communicate with a series of hugs and beer cans slammed against my forehead. Instead, I hope this suffices: Whooooooooa! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah! Whoooooooooa!)
In terms of indie-rock if the label indie-rock still suits Japandroids, rather than punk or even emo Celebration Rock is one of this decades watershed releases. It is the Pulp Fiction of 10s indie, doing for rock what Tarantino did for crime films by taking all of the cliches and conventions of the genre and reinvigorating them with canny execution and sheer, infectious enthusiasm. Like Pulp Fiction, Celebration Rock doesnt exist in a vacuum; Titus Andronicus 2010 LP The Monitor mines similar territory, as does the Hold Steadys output in the 00s. Where Japandroids diverge is in their preference for pure sensation over intellectual or literary trappings. For the Hold Steadys Craig Finn, youthful indiscretions are remarked upon from an adults distance. In the songs of Titus Andronicus, tales of woe from lead singer Patrick Stickles childhood in New Jersey are contextualized in a grander web of American history and critical theory. On Celebration Rock, meanwhile, the party happens in the moment, which the music evokes with every furiously strummed riff and triumphant wail.
Japandroids make music that should, theoretically, be relatively easy to produce more than once or twice per decade. And yet, when you make a record as good at being simple as Celebration Rock is, it doesnt leave you with a lot of options moving forward. If you repeat the formula, you have to compete directly with your most beloved record (and your audiences distorted memory of that record). If you change up the formula (assuming youre even capable of doing that), you run the risk of losing what people liked about you in the first place. Whether any of this has weighed on Japandroids in the time since they essentially dropped out of sight, at this point, is anyones guess. The band hasnt granted any recent interviews, and members Brian King and David Prowse shun social media. Album or no album, whatever Japandroids do from here will be a genuine surprise.
Source: http://uproxx.com/music/japandroids-absence-beach-slang/
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