ALBUM REVIEW: Half Japanese – Hear The Lions Roar

Fire Records

Released: 13.01.17

www.facebook.com/halfjapaneseband

Four decades into what anyone would hesitate to call a career, Jad Fair’s Half Japanese are as obscure but as essential as ever. Never a household name, but beloved of plenty of artists who are, Fair has always been punk as fuck, and even the addition of horn and cello in places doesn’t diminish the typically loveable ramshackle vibe.

Hear The Lions Roar is joyful and shambolic in equal measure, in keeping with Fair’s usual M.O., and from the Television-esque opener Wherever We Are Led to the closing Super Power, recalling Jonathan Richman in its earnest but charming, almost-rapped naivete, this album is a reminder of what a unique and valuable artist Fair is, lo-fi but hi-quality through and through.