Japandroids: Post-Nothing

Chord by chord, ’90s distortion seems to be oozing back into guitar rock. And for those jonesing for that sort of tar and fuzz, Vancouver’s Japandroids come bearing gifts. The duo’s debut full-length, Post Nothing, is a starry-eyed blast of Clinton-era crunch, each of its eight songs a sweaty salve for quarter-life miseries, or better yet, girl problems. That lyrical lean doesn’t let up, with the g-word popping up most effectively in the existential yeller “Young Hearts Spark Fire” and the stunning “Wet Hair,” when singer-guitarist Brian King and singer-drummer David Prowse wail in unison: “We run the gauntlet / Must get the rent / So we can French kiss some French girls.” Shouted over chords as thick as milkshakes, the opener “The Boys Are Leaving Town” is as much a nod to Thin Lizzy as it is heart-on-sleeve hellfire. While King’s hyperdrive approach to laying guitar brick rarely sits perfectly flush with Prowse’s cyclonic drums, every spasm on the recording sticks. The combined explosions never quit popping until the muddy sigh of the heartbreaking closer, “I Quit Girls.”