Description
Japandroids’ rise through the ranks has coincided with the golden age of the power duo. The Vancouver band, comprising Brian King (guitar, vocals) and David Prowse (drums, vocals), have come to prominence during a post-White Stripes boom dominated by the likes of The Black Keys, Royal Blood, Shovels & Rope, Drenge and Wye Oak.
Like those pairs, their popularity is rooted in the kind of exhilaratingly raw live performances which offer a corrective to the pre-set, almost-live predictability of so many contemporary rock bands. What makes Japandroids stand out from other duos, however, is the lack of an overt blues base. Essentially a standard four-piece guitar band cleverly compressed into two units, their take on classic ’70s and ’80s rock comes filtered through the stringency of punk and post-punk alternative rock.
Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/japandroids-near-wild-heart-life#gPTeeiMjBucOVlDS.99
As the album moves through its eight chapters, King’s commitment to a rooted kind of love becomes stronger, while his attachment to the itinerant life he’s chasing becomes more conflicted. The fantastic “Midnight To Morning” finds him reflecting, “so many miles, so much to lose”. It’s pretty much a perfect guitar song, recalling the fast, flighty urgency of the best of Celebration Rock. Musically and thematically, “No Known Drink Or Drug” nudges things further along. Over a kinetic buzz of noise and melody, King concedes that the vagaries of love trump the more reliable pleasures of intoxication.
Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/japandroids-near-wild-heart-life#gPTeeiMjBucOVlDS.99
