3. Japandroids, 'Celebration Rock'

It’s said that youth is wasted on the young. But that’s not entirely true. There is a brief shining moment where you can see adulthood approaching -- perhaps that first summer after high school or the epic days-long bender before the post-college job search begins -- which inspires a rare real-time nostalgia for the present. That is what Japandroids celebrate. Not just on “Younger Us,” though that’s perhaps the duo’s most perfect moment, but throughout Celebration Rock, an album that is timeless because there will always be another group of kids who need to rage against the dying of youth’s light. -- Joshua Ostroff