“Art Czars”
from the single Art Czars
2010
iTunes
When discussing the myriad charms of Japandroids, you inevitably get around to irresponsible drinking, unattainable girls, and wind machines. Everything they do cuts against the idea of restraint. Funny, then, that one of the most enduring qualities of Post-Nothing is judicious self-editing. Perhaps it would’ve been every bit as much of an end-to-end burner had it housed a more traditional ten tracks, but as is, you figure they stopped at eight because that’s all they deemed necessary to get their point across.
Inevitably, this casts songs like “Art Czars” — written in the Post-Nothing sessions and the first of a planned five 7″ singles from Japandroids in 2010 — as second-class from the jump. And in a way, those fears are justified, as it’s considerably less fuzzy and urgent than anything that made the cut, even sounding like it came out of a significantly pricier studio. But it’s as much an issue of quality as it is of fit. Though every bit as sloganeering as a Post-Nothing track, lines like “Here’s your money back / Here’s your punk rock back” are informed by an emotion that was mostly absent: anger. But directed at whom? Could it prove to be foreshadowing of a more cynical follow-up to Post-Nothing?
Here, though, it hardly matters. While it’s somewhat disconcerting to hear Japandroids in such a relatively adult guise, it’s heartening to hear something from them where a relatively subtle and cyclical melody generates its maximum impact long after the first listen.