Vancouver duo Japandroids’ mission statement to make the noise of 100 people worked intermittently on last year’s critically acclaimed debut, Post- Nothing. Trouble is, when the listener wasn’t being bludgeoned with their seismic, stop-start riffage, they could be left cold by the sub-Blink 182 teenage whining – and the contrast was all the more distinct when you caught them live.
No Singles rounds up the All Lies (2007) and Lullaby Death Jams (2008) EPs that evaded the debut, and it’s much the same story here. For every Darkness On The Edge Of Gastown, a stomping, brooding monolith which somewhat anti-climactically opens this set, there’s a meandering, pointless seven-minute track such as Lucifer’s Symphony. Lovers/ Strangers lightens the mood but occasionally sounds like it was more fun to record than it is to listen to: all build and no pay off.
But hell, when Brian King and David Prowse are on form, pounding you relentlessly round the head with brutal moments such as the last two minutes of Couture Suicide, you forget their insolent, irritating brattishness. Maybe they can grow into their dark side yet.
