Japandroids
Fate & Alcohol
ANTI- Records
If it really is last call for Japandroids, let the duo stumble out into the night, laughing and carrying on, with the faint strains of “The House That Heaven Built” echoing in the dark. Drunk on expressive, Dionysian poetry, ringing guitar frenzies, and the vagaries of untamed youth, Brian King and David Prowse stayed together for one final, no-holds-barred bash, the gloriously life-affirming Fate & Alcohol. They leave behind stimulus packages of big-hearted, singalong anthems and idealistic notions of love and reckless freedom, burdened by the sick feeling of freefalling into adulthood without a net.
“Ain’t no one left, just me, the city and a cigarette,” sings King in a moment of clarity, surveying the riot of vigorous strumming and crashing drums that hold aloft the rousing opener “Eye Contact High.” Straight out of Moneyball, a question quickly arises: How can anybody not be romantic about Japandroids? Every song on the immediately satisfying Fate & Alcohol is stuck in infectious, melodic overdrive, save for “Upon Sober Reflection,” where thrilling, turbo-speed riffs brake so everyone can hang on the measured words, “Don’t want to know if you love me, if you ain’t gonna do something about it.” And they mean it, just as mile-wide, high-flying choruses, grabbing hooks and emphatic, fist-pumping emotions jump barricades and bum rush the show, especially as the bittersweet, sweeping drama of “Fugitive Summer” and the dark, glassy propulsion of an irresistibly galvanizing “Chicago” come to the fore. It’s not hyperbole to say that Japandroids’ all-too-brief canon of just four studio albums has changed lives, as ridiculously naive as such a statement sounds.
Energetic, yet wistful, drinking songs like “D&T,” “One Without the Other,” and “Positively 34th Street” – the latter a pub crawl through New Orleans dives, bad habits and wrong turns – seem almost heroic in their misguided adventures. Which makes it imperative that The Hold Steady, Springsteen, and The Strokes are invited to any send-off. Clearly, they’ve informed Japandroids’ literate, classic rock-indie rock duality. Either a kegger in somebody’s garage or a wild night on the town seems appropriate.
