Approved: Japandroids (SNAP Of The Day)

I just got Japandroids eponymous album, months after its US release (and, I imagine, a similar time period after since it's been available in the UK) and it's brilliant. Smart, catchy, fast-paced punk straight from the better end of the Vagrant catalogue, it's the kind of record that just might have shaped my year if I was a 16-year-old kid. Still, not being 16 anymore isn't bothering me too much, as 'Young Hearts Spark Fire' and 'Wet Hair' are relentless, jostling anthems that are at times comical, particularly 'Wet Hair', where the lyrics discuss going to France to French kiss French girls. That the following track, 'Rockers East Vancouver', then starts with "We urge to go out, to get drunk" is almost emblematic of the lovable, careless fun that embodies this album, though they still manage to verge on the lo-fi No Age-type garage sound, which subconsciously gives them a credibility that cleaner, over-produced pop-punk acts lack. They've over in the UK during October playing London and, er, Halifax.