The mighty Vancouver rock duo Japandroids are back with their first new song in seven years, “Chicago,” which will appear on their final album, Fate & Alcohol, out Oct. 18 via Anti-.
“Chicago” finds Japandroids doing what they have always done best: Enormous, relentlessly striving guitars flying above a battlefield of drums, lyrics capturing the grimy beauty of living fully, even if the cost is some self-destruction. “Ma‘am, have mercy/I’m sweating through my shirt,” Brian King bellows on the chorus, “Any more, my body’s gonna burn/Up in front of everyone/Sorry, baby/We call it like we see it in Chicago.”
Fate & Alcohol will be Japandroids’ fourth album, following 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life, as well as their 2020 live album, Massey Fucking Hall. The duo recorded the new record in Vancouver with longtime collaborator Jesse Gander.
In a statement, King discussed the band’s aims for their last record, saying he and drummer (and occasional vocalist) David Prowse “wanted to broaden the definition of a Japandroids song.” To do so, they left their demos “quite open and malleable” to allow for more experimentation and flexibility when they finally got to the studio.
“At the time, this approach was new and exciting, and inspired us to be bolder, to take more chances,” King continued. “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 Jesse ever heard it. If you listen to our first demo of ‘Chicago,’ it’s obviously much rougher than what you hear on record, but it’s all there. Even on a blown-out iPhone recording, the energy was obvious, and the feeling cut through loud and clear.”
King and Prowse formed Japandroids in 2006 after meeting at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. They released their first album, Post-Nothing, in 2009, then a compilation, No Singles, which collected a pair of earlier EPs from 2007 and 2008. Their 2012 album, Celebration Rock, garnered wide acclaim, and after an extensive tour, they stepped back before returning in 2017 with Near to the Wild Heart of Life.
Reflecting on the band’s run, Prowse was modest but proud, saying, “I don’t think we’re the most technically proficient band in the world. And we’re not the most original-sounding or challenging band in the world. But we’ve always put a lot of passion into what we do, and I think that’s resonated with a lot of people. And I’m really grateful that we could be that band for people, in the same way that so many bands were for us.”
