Few others do 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, 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 get-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, meanwhile, is a Canadian punk take on patriotic country music, with a chorus that sounds like they’ve got a battalion behind them. The electronic-spiked I’m Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner) and Arc of Bar are both claustrophobic and widescreen, and 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.
