CD of The Week

Japandroids - Fate & Alcohol (Anti-)

The title of Japandroids’ second album, 2012’s Celebration Rock, can also be seen as the band’s motto. The Vancouver duo gained their devoted audience through crafting good-time anthems about male bonding, drinking too heavily, and making out with French girls. While unquestionably simple, at their best, the music on the band’s first two albums possessed a transcendent power that echoed the feelings of wild, unpredictable nights. Inevitably, the band has moved forward and matured since then, albeit more in lyrical outlook than sonic textures.

Fate & Alcohol is Japandroids’ fourth album, their first in seven years, and their self-designated final album. They will not be touring, and for all intents and purposes, the band exists in the past tense. Reading the pre-release coverage, this seems mostly due to changing life circumstances for primary vocalist/guitarist Brian King and secondary vocalist/drummer David Prowse. King is now sober and expecting a child with his wife in Michigan while Prowse is still living in Vancouver and works a day job as a booker at a rock club.

Many of the album’s ten tracks were written several years ago and they express an uneasy friction between joyous riffage and a newfound reflectiveness. “D&T,” which stands for drinking and thinking, exemplifies this perfectly with King howling that the “bartender knew, she’s seen every kind of blues / I tried to play it cool, but she knows all about you.” The carefree spirit of the band’s best-regarded work is mostly gone, but the sing-along chorus remains. The track is both the album’s most revealing and its most irresistible. On a few other songs, the individual elements and reverb-soaked interplay between King and Prowse are as winning as ever. For instance, the drums on “Alice” are propulsive and pummeling while the shifting structure and dynamics of “Fugitive Summer” have a definite thrill. However, on other songs, the mismatch between the occasionally corny lyrics and the raucousness of the music lead to labored results.

As a coda to Japandroids’ career, Fate & Alcohol is a fascinating document. What happens when two young hearts that spark fire become older, wiser hearts that drift apart, but still want to recapture the magic? Ultimately, Fate & Alcohol may not possess the exuberance one would expect from the band, but there are still plenty of rewards on an album that adds to Japandroids’ legacy.

**Donate $15 or more to Y-Not Radio to receive a download of Fate & Alcohol. Click here for details.
Review by Sol