Japandroids are doing it one more time with feeling. They’re closing the seven-year gap since 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life with their fourth and final album, which has the extremely Japandroids title of Fate & Alcohol, on October 18 via ANTI- (pre-order), and it sounds like they’re going out with a bang.
“On our last record we wanted to broaden the definition of a Japandroids song,” vocalist/guitarist Brian King says, “and purposely left our demos quite open and malleable so that we had more flexibility to experiment in the studio. At the time, this approach was new and exciting, and inspired us to be bolder, to take more chances. We were aiming for a more cinematic take on our signature sound. This time, we made certain that every song ripped in our jam space before [longtime producer] Jesse [Gander] ever heard it.”
If lead single “Chicago” is anything to go by, Japandroids sound as committed to ripping as they say they were. With all due respect to the last album, this is the raw, no-frills, explosive Japandroids you know and love. When King belts “Goddamn, ma’am, I’m sweating through my shirt!” you can just about feel the equally-sweaty crowd yelling it back in his face. It gets the blood pumping the way the best songs on Celebration Rock and Post-Nothing did, and it feels like a return to form that’s just as urgent and thrilling as the earlier records’ form that it’s returning to. It makes sense; Japandroids have approached every album like it very realistically might be their last, and this time they’re just saying it definitely is.
“If you listen to our first demo of ‘Chicago,’ it’s obviously much rougher than what you hear on record,” King continues, “but it’s all there. Even on a blown-out iPhone recording, the energy was obvious, and the feeling cut through loud and clear.” Check it out below.
For more Japandroids, read Celebration Rock turns 10.
Tracklist
1. Eye Contact High
2. D&T
3. Alice
4. Chicago
5. Upon Sober Reflection
6. Fugitive Summer
7. A Gaslight Anthem
8. Positively 34th Street
9. One Without the Other
10. All Bets Are Off