| The House That Heaven Built | |
| Cover: | The House That Heaven Built.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Japandroids |
| Album: | Celebration Rock |
| Recorded: | 2010–2011 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Genre: | Garage rock, noise pop |
| Length: | 4:49 |
| Label: | Polyvinyl Record Co. |
| Producer: | Japandroids |
| Prev Title: | Heavenward Grand Prix |
| Prev Year: | 2010 |
"The House That Heaven Built" is the fourth 7" single by Canadian rock duo Japandroids. It was released by Polyvinyl Record Co. on May 15, 2012. The initial pressing is limited to 2000 copies on clear vinyl.[1] The song is the first single from Japandroids' second album Celebration Rock.[2]
On February 27, 2013, the song was announced as the winner of a contest to determine the entrance music for the Vancouver Canucks NHL team.[3]
On March 27, 2012, Pitchfork Media awarded the song "The House That Heaven Built" a Best New Music designation, with Pitchfork's Jenn Pelly calling the song "a rapturous head-banger, requiring only one, oft-repeated hook of clearheaded subversiveness: 'And if they try to slow you down/ Tell them all, to go to hell.'" [4] The same website ranked the song #5 on its list of the top 100 tracks of 2012, with Brandon Stosuy writing: "At first, Japandroids reminded me of music and a sensibility from my youthful wanderings: basement shows, photocopied zines, couches you only saw once. But seeing that sing-along made me think about how punk spirit, however you define it, is something that can't be relegated to the past. There will always be rock kids who go to a show wanting to be saved. In 2012, this was their anthem."[5]
Rolling Stone named the song the 24th-best song of 2012.[6]
A video for "The House That Heaven Built", Japandroids' first and only music video, was released on August 13, 2012.[7] The black-and-white video, directed by Jim Larson and produced by Pitchfork.tv, documented one week in the life of Japandroids on tour using footage from the east coast portion of their spring 2012 US tour, including live footage from shows in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York City, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C.[8]