Japandroids, "Young Hearts Spark Fire" This was the song that launched the Japandroids, rattling around enough on blogs to get the band the attention that would make their career. It's a solid capsule of their sound, all fuzzy guitars, propulsive drumming,...
Japandroids, "Younger Us" Lots of music gets described as "anthemic", and I've sometimes wondered what people mean by it. I think for me, it describes something that you want to shout along with, preferably with other people. Not sing,...
Run The Jewels, "Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1" El-P and Killer Mike first got together on the latter's R.A.P. Music, which is an amazing album. When they announced a full collab, the first Run the Jewels record, I was pumped....
Japandroids, "The House That Heaven Built" Everything about Celebration Rock is just unabashedly turned up to 11. It was impossible for me to not be absolutely charmed to death by it. It was deliberately written to be full of songs that would be...
Takes a bit to get going, but we close with a couple outstanding songs. The Might Be Giants, "Can You Find It?" This song, from Here Come the ABC's, really doesn't make any sense without the accompanying video. I...
