Listening Post - Gary Numan Rankings

What Numan albums should you buy? What's the aggregate ranking? How bored am I?

Pleasure Principle - A+ (100)
Replicas - A (97)
Telekon - A- (90)
Exile - B+ (89)
New Anger - B+ (89)
Tubeway Army - B+ (89)
Dead Son Rising - B (86)
Sacrifice - B (86)
Pure - B- (81)
Dance - B- (81)
Strange Charm - C- (71)
Berserker - C- (71)
The Fury - D+ (68)
Machine + Soul - D (65)
Outland - D (65)
Warriors - D (65)
I, Assassin - D (65)

Gary's Septenary Rating: B- (80)
Actually considering just how god awful so much of his output was in the 80s-90s, this rating is much higher than I anticipated.

Queen for a Day - Another One Bites the Dust

Where were you in 1980? If you were anywhere in the country and you had a radio you heard Another One Bites the Dust. It was massive. So much so that it kind of has become a cliche.

John Deacon twisted a Chic bassline (can you hear "Good Times"?) and made the biggest crossover hit in rock history. Rock stations payed it because it was Queen. Black stations played it cuz it was a dance/urban track. It was top 10 and it was inoffensive and it really wasn't about anything except, well, murder. But not real murder. Film Noir murder. This was a classic case of words being written to fit the musical line.

But it wasn't supposed to be a single. It was Michael Jackson who suggested it after hearing it in concert. Cuz, Mikey was a hige Queen fan.

The song will bring you back to that era AND it will make you tap your feet 30 years later.

Grade: A

Reflecting Pool: fun. - Some Nights - 2012

fun. - Some Nights - 2012

I wasn't very kind to "Some Nights" when it first came out. I think I was looking for Aim & Ignite II. Cardinal sin of music appreciation. I gave them a very mediocre review on PopDose and I was validated by the 3 stars in Rolling Stone.

But, the thing is, we wanted to love Some Nights. We had heard the big single months before the album's release and we adored it. Couldn't stop playing it.

And when the album came out, at first we just loved it. It was different. More percussive. More challenging.

And, for some reason I thought that was bad by the middle of the record.

But, this record has been on our heavy rotation all year and I think that's saying something. And it's time to go back and give it another listen.

Some Nights starts out strong. The requisite intro-song that we've come to expect from Nate is here and it's even better than I could have hoped for. Takes chances, plays with audio space, it's almost cinematic. And then the call to arms. The opening number, if you will. The title track. Which is all 80s Stomp and Antmusic beats and when Nate breaks into the spoken bridge we're in familiar territory as he's reflecting on whether this has been all worth it. (Really, Nate, at some points ya gotta accept the life of a rock star) then it breaks down AGAIN to reveal that his sister has had a terrible breakup but his nephew is cool and....wait....what the fuck? Auto-tune? Why is there auto-tune???

On further investigation I read that the band had fallen in love with Kanye West's brillian My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and employed Jeff Bhasker from that album to produce their record and, in doing so, succeeded in doing what I've been praising them for on almost every record: Pulling the familiar tropes in their music into the future. Contemporizing it.

The simplicity of THE SINGLE felt at first like it was the mashing up of two incomplete tracks but, upon the 40th or so listen, it really isn't. It's the first real Indie Anthem. And it's kind of perfect. Because when I, in my 40s, went to see them, boy, did I feel young shouting that song at the top of my lungs.

With Dost on the keyboards Nate perfects his balladeering (and "come on, it's going to be okay" feel goodism ala Michael Stipe) in a comradery sea shanty in "Carry On", and while it may be not up to, say "Take Your Time" or "The Gambler" and it's a little too obsessed with it's self sampling, it's beefy enough to pull it off.

Then all goes....weird. The hip-hop obsession gets married to a New Wave riff and the result is some truly off putting piece of music. Sadly, "It Gets Better" isn't about being gay. And, that's almost hard to believe since the band jumps through many hoops to prove that skin tight, women jeans wearing, neo-feminine, sockless, Nate isn't GAY. Get it? He's not. He drinks. A LOT. Every freaking magazine article either addresses the fact that he has a girlfriend or that he gets blind drunk every chance he can.
And, the song isn't about that, anyway. "I know it hurts at first but it gets better". It's about losing your virginity. And it's sort of horrible.

Fortunately, that's a momentary piece of madness and, with the simple and terrific, mid-tempo singalong, "Why Am I the One", we are back on track. Sure, it's Elton John 101, but it works. Heck, if you're gonna wear your Queen and ELO love on your sleeve, you really can't complete the trifecta with out Mr. John, right?

The schoolyard melodies in "All Alone" almost drive it off the cliff. Almost. The song bashes up a goodtime campfire song with all sorts of studio tricks, disguising it's experimentation behind a catchy chorus. But, it isn't great.

And it isn't until "All Alright" that I feel like the band really gets back on its footing. The hugeness of the chorus is what Nate does best: take what sounds like joy and lay it on top of what could be about death or just loss and regret. It's the self-flagellation song. You just wanna sing it with him and then...hug him. Nate Ruess really seems to need a hug.

The real marriage of hip-hop and pop is "One Foot". Riffing on the same Timbaland-type sounds that pervaded Hip-Hop the last few years (reference "Four Minutes" by Madonna for an understanding), it's impossible not to want to raise your hands in time. And when it breaks into a simple melody, we're back on terra firma. It's the reappearance of Nate's dad and his near death experience! That one event seems to have altered that boy's life, completely. And provided fodder for three songs so far.

The album ends with a big coda: "Stars" is one half of a great song. I say "half" because it's a great song...for the first two minutes. And then it sort of implodes upon itself. The title of the album reappears and Nate sings that he sometimes rules the world with "barlights" and "Pretty girls" but he misses his mom so much (never in my life have I heard a singer sing about his mommy as much as Nate Ruess).
However, determined to create the Indie Pop version of Kanye West's "Runaway", the song collapses into a sea of auto tune and, for the first time in The Format or fun.'s history, relegates them to "a time". It might as well be the 80s and they may as well be using drum machines. And lots of echo. Thing is, the damned melody is great and the song itself could have been such a good closer. In the end, it proves the album's undoing. It's slavish and desperate. It's a trick and purposeless. And it hurts my head.

Oh, well. I like most of it.

Grade: B+

ASide: Some Nights, We Are Young, One Foot
BlindSide: Some Nights (Intro), Why Am I The One?, All Alright
DownSide: It Gets Better

Reflecting Pool - fun. (Steel Train) - Steel Train

fun. couldn't have happened unless Nate Ruess was introduced to Jack Antonoff (as well as Andrew Dost). Jack had another band at the time, one that is on the back burner right now. But, they put out an album in 2010 and here is the review from that time.

Reposted from:
http://septenary.blogspot.com/2010/08/selling-music-on-steel-train.html

"Arcade Fire has the number one record in the United States this week. Sure, that doesn't mean the same thing it did 30 years ago when it was Thriller. Or 20 years ago when we were talking about Nirvana. Or even 10 years ago when it was all about...um...*NSync.
It's still pretty extraordinary. Knocking off a label driven powerhouse like Eminem is no mean feat. It was done by a band that has really no business being (gasp) popular. What it means for the record business I won't get in to here. You know the drill, the labels will try to emulate the Indie phenomenon of a band that never catered to anyone else's tastes and did it all by developing a fan base and embracing things like good musicianship, the internet, etc. I can't wait to see how UMG tries to manufacture that. 
Actually, I can wait.
But, while I'm waiting I want to bask in that success not because I like The Arcade Fire. i don't, in fact. I don't get it. I think "Keep The Car Running" is less a nod to Springsteen as I keep reading and more a retread of John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown band who, themselves WERE ripping off Bruce. I just wanted to applaud the Arcade Fire and allow that independent spirit to segue to a band whose record I can't stop spinning: Steel Train.
The road that took me to this band is actually interesting (to me, natch!) 
I love the band, fun. I was turned on to them because of a blog called PopDose. I had done some spec writing for them when they were the estimable JefitoBlog a few years back. I got some heat for my Guides to Queen and Adam Ant. It was great and it got my reviewing rocks off a little bit. Jeff and his crew reviewed this band called 'fun' and I took a chance. For the better part of last year "Aim & Ignite", the debut record has been on heavy rotation in my house. My three year old daughter can sing the chorus to their song, "All the Pretty Girls" and you've been hearing "Walking the Dog" in Expedia commercials the last few months.
My wife, knowing how much I loved that record and also that in our new house we would have room to highlight our turntable, dust off the old lps and fill the house with pops and cackles, bought me the album on Vinyl. A gorgeous gatefold edition, three sides, heavy plastic. The record came with a CD as well, as if I needed one. But still. It is fantastic.
As a dedicated music lover, it's never enough to just bask in a band's one record, if you really love them you need to go back into their past and dredge, find the hidden nuggets, you know? The lead singer, Nate Reuss, came from an Arizona band called The Format. A power pop group that I would say is a cross between Jimmy Eat World and Queen. Their album Dog Problems is superb. 
Nate left The Format and helped form fun. 
And I started following them on Facebook and Twitter. It was on Twitter that one of the members of fun was going on and on about how great Steel Train's record was. Little did I know that the leader of Steel Train is 1/3 of fun. But, I figured, eff it, I love fun.'s record. And if THEY can't stop talking about this new record I'm gonna try it. 
Now, I have a new philosophy when it comes to buying music. If a band puts their record out on the standard issue CD or iTunes, i'm really not all that interested in paying full price. I won't steal it. But I will either wait for it to be offered as an iTunes deal for $4 or I'll get a music industry friend to give it to me. 
But. If a band goes that extra mile. Puts out the record on vinyl AND includes a digital download I will happily pay double the going iTunes rate for that experience. 
That's what I did with the new Albums from The Gaslight Anthem, Against Me!, The Hold Steady and the forthcoming Jukebox the Ghost's Everything Under the Sun. Grace Potter and her friends at Disney can suck it with the 1 day only $3.99 download through Amazon. And, even at that price I've barely given the record a cursory listen. Why bother? It's ephemera. It's just files. The music is secondary to how much music you have. How big the collection on your device and how easy it is to access. Blah to digital downloads.
Steel Train has a lot of options. But I just needed one. The LP, which came with the requisite digital version AND a (highly mediocre but intriguing) reworking of the entire record with all female artists such as Nellie McKay, Amanda Palmer, Scarlett Johannsen, Tegan and Sara, etc. The bonus record is called Terrible Thrills Vol. 1. The label for Steel Train is Terrible Thrills. 
But there's nothing terrible about this record (see what I did there?).
There are lots of flavors on Steel Train. Big, anthemic sounds, soaring choruses, production and arrangements that tip their hats to the best of lush 80s sound but with an immediacy and confidence that is ginormous helpings of ear candy.
I know, reviewers are supposed to traffic in simile. (It's Midnight Oil meets T. Rex on a Coldplay soundscape!...sometimes it kind of is though....) But I don't think that's fair. 
Steel Train is an album by a band that loves McCartney as much as they do Lennon. It's as powerful a record as I've heard in a while, frantic at times, pulsating with urgency challenging you not to join in. As in the opening track "Bullet" which calls to mind Big Country (in a good way) and REQUIRES the listener to point to the last row in a stadium of fist pumpers and shout "Like a bullet! A bullet! A bullet into the night!". Ot the schizo, Indie power rock of "Turnpike Ghost". Or the nod to early 00s electro pop bands like Ima Robot with the song, "Touch Me Bad".
The record never lets up. Even when it slows down on "Fall Asleep", a song that so blatantly rips Pachelbel's progression (no song since Blues Traveler's Hook has done so with such abandon) but it doesn't matter because it's so sweet that, by the time you get there, you're so in love with Jack Antonoff and his crew that you will find yourself starting the whole record all over again.

Steel Train. A

Queen for a Day - Dragon Attack

Queen was obviously drinking from the funk fountain in the late 70s. They would score a number one on the disco charts with Another One Bites the Dust. But, that wasn't the ONLY funk/dance track on The Game.

This Brian May jam was the second song on the album (and the one that had me leaping for the needle to skip to the next track) and it's fine for what it is.

Led by a bass lick that is second rate disco at best, everyone in the band gets their shot. There's some drum fills, some guitar noodling, some producer name checking ("It's gotta be Mack!") and big funky break down that sounds like it wants so badly to be of the upper harlem streets of the 70s.

The song overstays it's welcome by an easy minute and is an odd choice for the second track of what would be their poppiest, most accessible record, but, taken as part of the whole, it makes sense for what the next track is.

Grade: B-

Reflecting Pool: fun. - Aim & Ignite

fun. - Aim and Ignite - 2009

"Have you ever wondered about our old nu-metal friends and what became of them?"

In the early summer of 2009 I got an email from the owner of a blog that I read and occasionally wrote for. It was pretty simple. "We don't like this album but I think you will."

Or something like that. That's how I remember it.

Anyway. I bought the album based on that recommendation and that's where all this started.

Aim & Ignite is everything I could want from a rock band in the 21st Century. Confessional lyrics that can bring me to tears, grandiose scope, influenced by Queen and ELO as well as a host of others, and never once sounding like a 2nd rate version of any of them.

Aim opens in similar fashion as Dog Problems. With a overture of sorts. The french cafe sounds of "Be Calm" serves another purpose besides the orchestral arrangements of horns and strings. It's alien. It's unfamiliar. It's foreign.

And that's the topic of the song.  Nate moved (away from his band and his mom) from Arizona to the musical hotbed of creativity that is Brooklyn. And with that move he hooked up with instrumentalist Andrew Dost and Guitarist (and leader of the stellar rock outfit from New Jersey) Jack Antonoff. And the three of them created an indie-rock super group.

Opening the album with something as different, progressive, poppy, operatic and exciting as "Be Calm" suggests that Aim and Ignite will be less a standard issue, next phase of a career and more of group putting it all on the table because, hell, it probably won't work anyway.

The next track, "Benson Hedges" could have been the next stage that I was talking about. It very easily could have been on (and I believe might have been written for) The Format's 3rd record that never happened.

Doesn't matter. It's great. That song and the brilliant summer single, "All the Pretty Girls", proves that it was Nate all along that was driving The Format. It would be one thing to resurrect one's self with a new band and say, "This is what I am doing now. Deal with it. Follow or don't." But, Nate doesn't do that. Whether by design or not, what he's done is create a perfect album to bring Format fans to, keep THEM engaged and reach out to a larger audience by expanding the palette.

At the end of all this (and everything is a gas, from the mariachi-swing of "At Least I'm Not as Sad" to the lower east side indie rock of "Walking the Dog" to the built in audience riser showstopper "Barlights" with its city horns and gospel chorus) there is "The Gambler". It's hard to explain my reaction to the first (and second and third....) time I heard this song. Written in the voice of his mother, the song is a love letter to his parents' relationship. With his father's near death (a familiar trope for Ruess fans) and their move to the desert ("to save our only son"), it's such a moving piece that I am reduced to tears every time I hear it. I just watched them live last weekend and...yep...tears.
Then I played the song in the car for my wife who wasn't familiar with the lyrics. She read along as it played and...yep...tears.

The album ends with a self reflective piece by Nate as he ponders the last few years of his life, the new friends, those who didn't believe in him in the first place. Musically, it's all over the map, borrowing from Vampire Weekend's Upper East Side Soweto among other sounds. It SHOULD be all over the map. Nate's been all over the country and landed in the biggest melting pot in America.
It's a wondrous thing when the template of a song echoes the sentiments behind the words.

I'm grateful to the guys at PopDose for not digging this album but thinking I would. Cuz they were right.

In every sense Aim & Ignite succeeds.

Grade: A+
ASide: Be Calm, Benson Hedges, All the Pretty Girls, The Gambler
BlindSide: I Wanna Be The One, At Least I'm Not as Sad (as I Used to Be), Barlights, Take Your Time (Coming Home)

Reflecting Pool: fun. (The Format) - Dog Problems

The Format - Dog Problems - 2006

This is more like it. Talk about growth. How they made the leap in three years from standard issue Power Pop to this I don't know. But, it's here. And you should listen to it.

"Matches", a 3/4 time prelude, if you will, sets the table for everything fun. would do just a couple years later. Sweeping, elegant, french (oh, just listen), forward thinking, the track makes having a "band" irrelevant. The Format is now about ideas as much as it is about songs. And those ideas are from Nate Ruess who is rapidly outgrowing his band mates. Flowing into "I'm Actual", as part of a suite, confessional lead singer cries, "Can we please take an hour and talk about me? And talk about me and we'll talk about me." He's a narcissist, to be sure, and arrogant, and he has the pipes to pull it off.

Pipes? Maybe it's hubris. Maybe it's confidence. Doesn't matter. This, THIS is what the legacy of those bands who followed in The Beatles footsteps were supposed to be doing 40 years later. No doubt having Steve McDonald of Redd Kross behind the buttons to produce helped the boys find their muse.

And then...the album really comes alive. "Time Bomb" crashes forth, opening the album in true fashion after the 1-2 introduction. Nate has gone through some kind of break up and it's all bloody and pain and attempted suicide and on the record. Few bands write choruses as catchy and are lucky enough to get one or two on a record. Dog Problems is lousy with memorable hooks. "She Doesn't Get It" is one of those, you almost don't care what the song is about as long as you can get to that delicious chorus, so delectable that you don't mind the synthetic drums in the background. In fact, it's the synthesis of synthetics and prowess that will pave the way for superstardom for Nate Ruess.
And if that isn't enough, there's the centerpiece of the album for me: "Pick Me Up". A song so perfect that I wish they would bring it back for live shows. I think some fans would go nuts and it deserves a large sea of bobbing fans to bring it to life.
And then the title track, which I think would be closing out Side One if this was on Vinyl.
In the mid aughts many bands were falling in love with that honky tonky strip club of yore sound. Skybox's Various Kitchen Utensils, Tally Hall, and, of course, the title track to Dog Problems.
A heartbreaking track that breaks itself up and builds itself with such confident and wit that it's impossible to not hope and pray that the singer will find love after such a catastrophic break up.

It's brilliant.

"Oceans", "Dead End", "Snails"...there isn't a bad track on this record. Even the label-ordered single, "The Compromise", which is, in the end, a compromise, is also stellar. Although there are other tracks that blow it away, and it really doesn't fit in with it's heavy guitar assault, it still holds up with the rest of the record. And "If Work Permits" steals as much from Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945" as any other band of the era might, while marrying it to pop and bringing great closure to a remarkable album.

 If you were a McCartney (vs. a Lennon) you will love Dog Problems.

Grade: A+

ASide: Time Bomb, She Doesn't Get It, Pick Me Up, Dog Problems
BlindSide: I'm Actual, Dead End, The Compromise, Inches & Falling

Reflecting Pool: fun. (The Format) - Interventions & Lullabies

It's impossible to look at fun. and not look back into the history of the band. After all, in a way, they are sort of a Indie-Pop Supergroup. Like Asia for the 21st Century Pop Rock set. 
So, before we get into the group du jour of 2012, let's take a look at their roots. Well, not ALL of their roots. But, the bestests.





The Format - Interventions & Lullabies - 2003

A big, melodic guitar pop sound is what you get when you start up "Interventions and Lullabies". Since the lead singer doesn't play an instrument, he relies on the rest of the band to fill the holes in his melodies.

This works for Nate Ruess. He's free to just write and sing. He's only constrained by the rest of the band's abilities. Fortunately, while they didn't come out of the womb ready and able to play, well, everything, they are fine for what he needs: Power Pop.

Songs like "The First Single" benefit from the band's naivete and simplicity. And in it you can hear the roots of a credible pop singles manufacturer. For my money, it's the second track, "Wait, wait, wait" where we really get a sense of what they are going to be capable of. 12 tracks of relatively interesting and exciting rock. Sure, there's meanderingly pedestrian stuff, like "Give it Up", but what do you expect? They're kids. They're just feeling their way. They are coming from the shadows of Jimmy Eat World and that's all they know. Yes, they're from Arizona. ;)

The best thing about this album is that they are free to rewrite much of it as they would with songs like "Tie the Rope", and turn it into the much better "Pick Me Up" on the next album.

On a track like "I'm Ready, I Am", Nate overshadows the music with his sickly confessions. If you take the time to delve into his lyrics you will find that he's often not a happy guy, in spite of the sing-songy melodies. There seems to be sickness in his life, especially for his father. He's written many times about his dad's illness. On the plucky ballad "On Your Porch" he first really opens up about this. It's hard for me to listen unbiased since, a) I lost a daughter to an illness and b), listening to the lyrics on the first fun. record, I have to assume that I am close in age to Nate's dad (maybe older) and that makes ME feel more mortal and, very old. And it's a little unseemly to be trying to relate to and review music made by someone who would be the same age as my late daughter. Did that make sense?

I usually give high marks for debuts but, there's no need to here. It's fine for what it is. There have been a gajillion power pop records recorded in the last 20 years. Not Lame Records and The International Pop Overthrow have proven that for a while now. Not sure who's buying the stuff, or IF anyone is buying the stuff, but it's out there. And this is no better and no worse than all that stuff.

Grade: B-
A Side: Wait Wait Wait, On Your Porch
BlindSide: Tune Out, I'm Ready I Am, Sore Thumb
DownSide: Give it Up

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor - 2010

Okay, this album is a couple years old, but they've got a new one coming out and I thought, given that I just blasted through the Japandroids latest and, well, my ears don't hurt yet, I thought it would be a good time to back to TA.

Not since The Gaslight Anthem (Or Arcade Fire. Or John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band) has there been a band that has been as explicit of its love of Springsteen as Titus Andronicus. But, if that means you are expecting heartland music about the downtrodden or deserving, you won't get that here.

Part Civil War reflection piece, part Americana, part punk, part rock operas, The Monitor is impossible to pigeon hole. The opening track, A More Perfect Union, is a kitchen sink of chaos. But it's really the next track that Titus Andronicus show their true colors.

They are an anthem band for the 21st Century. Bookending the anthem with quotes (most notably, Lincoln's "most miserable man living" at the end) they aren't writing anthems for stadiums. These are intimate, difficult, small venue anthems. Titus Andronicus want you to hurt the way we all do when we are wronged. they want you to feel the blood on the battlefield on the mid-1800s.

Or that's just what I am putting on them. But, deep in the chaos and dischord are some beefy and powerful hooks. I imagine a sea of Jersey kids jumping up and down, fists in the air, chanting, "you will always be a loser" at the end of "No Future Part 3: Escape from No Future, which, on the album, uses that momentum to take us into a marching band, parade snare gigantor of a track, Richard II or Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Responsible Hate Anthem). If this 2/4 Irish jig on steroids doesn't get the crowd going, I dont want to know what would.

The album seems to reach its nadir of despair on "Four Score and Twenty", a song of hopelessness and desperation as I've ever heard. But the band knows well enough that there's no currency in pure hopelessness. So, the second half of this 8 minute centerpiece roils up like The Pogues challenged to a fistfight and declares itself "Born to die just like a man". It's ultimately a heroic piece, if even for the ultimate conclusion of much of the civil war, these men were NOTHING if not brave in the face of certain death.

Whew.

Fortunately that's only followed by the most Replacement-like paen to blind stinking drunkenness, "Theme from 'Cheers'" which has nothing to do with the actual theme from "Cheers" and more from the "Theme" of what happens in a bar. I.e. getting vomit inducing drunk.

The capstone to the record is the 14 minute (yes, you read that right) "The Battle of Hampton Roads" which is elliptically set against the epic battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack but is really a confessional for the singer who is rebelling against....well...everything. And finally pleas with his "darling" to never leave him, for he'd be nothing without...her? Or is it the war? Or is it the society he needs to rebel against?

I don't know. I don't think Patrick Stickles, the singer, does either. It doesn't matter. It SHOULD be unresolved as the famous battle wasn't decidedly won by either side.

The Monitor isn't an easy album. It's demanding. If you give yourself over to it, it's like discovering Neutral Milk Hotel for the first time. Only edgier and angrier with a LOT more feedback. This band could be called Feedback. Or Funeral. Or Funny Funereal Feedback.

But, when you do give yourself to Titus Andronicus, be prepare to rock out like you've never done before.

Grade: A

ASide: A More Perfect Union, No Future Part 3: Escape from No Future
BlindSide: Richard II or Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Responsible Hate Anthem), Theme From "Cheers", The Battle of Hampton Roads

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Japandroids - Celebration Rock - 2012

"We yell like Hell to the Heavens!"

Who says rock is dead?

Okay. Maybe rock is dead. Maybe no one wants to play it on the radio anymore. Maybe.

But, there's something about bashing barre chords and hitting drums as hard as you can and rousing teenage boys and girls to jump around in front of a stage.

Too many bands are more interested in being effete and musical or hypnotizing their fans into a subdued trance state.

And then there are Japandroids. A couple guys out of Vancouver (By the way, BC rocks. Black Mountain, anyone? AC/DC recorded their last one there. Something about that city of glass) who rock harder than The Gaslight Anthem or The Darkness or, hell, just about anyone.

They aren't slaves to old tropes and yet they use classic metal tropes to make their points. Case in point, the accentuating cymbal crashes of "Evil's Sway", who's chorus will have you adding Tom Petty's "American Girl" to your playlist (Trust me, just listen to it).

The sounds that Guitarist Brian King and Drummer David Prowse make could tear down any stadium roof. They are Monsters of Rock in an era when so few want to blow the doors down.

At 35 minutes, Celebration Rock is just that. A celebration of rock. Of music. It's joyful and chaotic and messy and explosive. Everything Rock is supposed to be. Honestly, if it lasted any longer it would be bloated with filler. Because this is the perfect amount of time to spend with this music.
Celebration Rock closes as it opens: with the sounds of actual fireworks. Which aren't as epic as the movies make them out to sound but that's the realness of fireworks. They aren't explosions of a Star Wars-ian scale. They are dry and hollow and there's real beauty in them because they are jarring and so very very ephemeral.

That's Celebration Rock.

Its a party record by way of assault. But it's not dumb. No, not dumb at all. Imagine if Titus Andronicus could find a way to trim 5 minutes off some of their epics.

So, Rock isn't dead.
The Hold Steady may have gotten exhausted being the only band of its kind in a Bieber/Perry pop world, but they just kicked down the door for Japandroids. And The Gaslight Anthem. And Titus Andronicus.

Grade: A
ASide: Days of Wine and Roses, Fire's Highway, The House that Heaven Built
BlindSide: Evil's Sway, Adrenaline Nightshift