Japandroids don’t do subtlety.
The rock duo’s songs, in their hard-chugging, heart-on-their-sleeves, shotgunning-beers glory, are big, bold, and brash — they could be described as all-caps “AMERICA,” if guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse didn’t hail from Canada. In the four years since Celebration Rock, a number of wailing bands have risen to, in the words of our Steven Hyden, “synthesize the power and grittiness of punk with the mythology of classic rock, all while ignoring the pop-music world at a time when pop has otherwise subsumed indie culture.”
But, to turn a Japandroids song back into a Thin Lizzy song, which somehow seems appropriate, the boys are back in town. The group announced a new album recently called Near To The Wild Heart Of Life (the only surprising thing about that name is that it took this long for Japandroids to use it), which “was written clandestinely throughout 2014 and 2015 in Vancouver, Toronto, New Orleans, and Mexico City.”
That quote above is according to the press release, which also notes “like Post-Nothing and Celebration Rock, the album is eight songs. This is because eight songs is the standard template for a great rock and roll album.” Examples include: Born to Run, Raw Power, Marquee Moon, Remain In Light, Master of Puppets, and Horses. Inviting comparisons to some of the greatest albums of all-time? That’s the Japandroids way.
Today they shared the self-titled first single, which you can hear below. On this new track, the vocals are closer to the front of the mix than on previous songs; it sounds like more time was spent in the studio, which can only be a good thing.
Near To The Wild Heart Of Life is out 1/27 via Anti- Records. Pre-order it here.
