(Gotta get warmed up for this one!)
The album starts off with it’s title track, “Near To The Wild Heart of Life”. To be honest from this super hazy start, honestly it sounds like we may be dealing with the same old Japandroids we left off with. When that first verse hits, everything is just as triumphant and enthusiastic as you would hope, joyous too due to the addition of those keyboards floating in the background. As far as vocals go however, man is this ever different. I wouldn’t say this is a bad performance, but it’s been years since we’ve heard from Japandroids. But when Brian King was younger his voice had a little more of a rasp to it, not too much, but just enough to give this track some edge. The vocals here are much more inviting, this new sound Japandroids are going for sounds almost like a band you would hear at a bar or something. While we’re talking about this new sound Japandroids has, overall this is very different even outside the vocals. Going into this recording of this, I knew two things: 1. Japandroids were going to be using more synths and 2. they were going to be going for a slightly more Americana sound. Both of those elements are present on this title track. Surprisingly, even with all of these bizarre new elements to the once pretty simplistic Japandroids formula, it comes off well. The reason most of this track comes off so darn well, is because of just how anthemic it is. Japandroids for years have made a career out of crafting explosive noise rock anthems, and with a few tweaks this is exactly that. “Near To The Wild Heart Of Life” is certainly a different Japandroids track, but it’s heart pounding and it absolutely gets you going. Up next is “North East South West”, and right from this intro it’s clear that they’re seriously going hard on this fuzzy acoustic sound. As these verses roll by however, they honestly do almost nothing for me. The verse here isn’t anthemic at all, as a matter of fact it’s sort of cheesy. Obviously going into this I knew they were going for more of an Americana/Heartland Rock sort of sound, but all around this is just a little much. The biggest shame here is just how good some of the elements are. That chorus as simple as it is totally sticks with you and comes off as one of the most anthemic choruses here. But when it comes to these verses, would anyone hate me if I said this was borderline “Dad Rock”? Japandroids here don’t sound nearly as explosive or rejuvenated, they sound exhausted. They literally sound like that first gigantic performance on the album just drained them completely. I seriously wish the verses here were better, because that chorus is just so damn toe-tapping. So here we see Japandroids still clearly able to write an Anthem in parts, they just seriously need a little help putting it back together. Then for the last minute or so of “North East South West” Japandroids switch things over to an even slower verse that’s even more depressing, I’m just gonna move on. Remember when I said Japandroids wanted to do more with synths? Well look no further than “True Love and a Free Life of Free Will”, which at the very least has some oomph to it, even some heaviness. I’m actually seriously digging David Prowse’s drum performance on this one A LOT, I just wish Brian King’s guitars were brought up a little more. A lot of these tracks still have a big ANTHEM feel to all of this, complete with explosive sing along choruses that I’m sure would be amazing to be at a Japandroids show singing. While “True Love and a Free Life of Free Will” has a BIG sound to it, you have to realize this is a completely different animal. This is NOT the Japandroids that you’ve been waiting 4 years to hear from, this is practically a completely different band. But for every alright track like “True Love and a Free Life of Free Will”, there’s a sloppy one like “I’m Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner)”. To me, right from these opening notes this is just a desperate attempt to make themselves sound like who they used to be. I can literally hear every huge Japandroids fan listening to the first few tracks here asking “Where the hell is the distortion? Where’s the noise? Where’s the energy?”. Well it’s right here on “I’m Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner)”, but man is it all ever underwhelming and a little ugly. There’s literally almost no energy here whatsoever, and the rest of the track just slugs along trying to be some youthful anthem that it’s certainly not. To me, “I’m Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner)” sounds like the parents of Japandroids attempting to make their sons music. I think the lyrics here are solid, but the rest of the Japandroids sound is gone.
“Arc Of Bar” once again shows Japandroids focusing heavily on synths. Not so shockingly, once again this doesn’t even come off as “different’ though, it just comes off as seriously boring and sluggish. The fact that twice in this review now I’ve used the word “Boring” to describe Japandroids is seriously awful, I’ve ever had to use that word talking about them. As far as their performances go, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad if they put in just a little bit more effort. Overall a lot of these tracks are just coming off as so tame. Lyrically, there are a few moments that get me going, but why the hell did this track need to be over 7 minutes long?! Things literally got repetitive after the first minute, so by minute 4 and 5 I’m literally desperate for a change or a switch-up. The synths that eventually come in for the chorus however are actually really solid and make for a nice touch. “Arc Of Bar” overall though is just so unbelievably boring. Sure, that little shift in chorus towards the end is nice but that certainly doesn’t give it the right to be over 7 minutes. “Midnight To Morning” is up next with another sort of folky intro, I seriously feel like I don’t even know this band anymore. When things speed up at the very least this riff has a little bite to it. While the instrumentals are certainly picking up a bit, lyrically this is a huge lull for me. While earlier I feel like the lyrics were holding this album together, here i feel like Japandroids are recycling everything they’ve used already here. Not to mention, Brian King’s performance here is a little yelps for my liking. As far as I’m concerned, if Japandroids are intent on going down this road, that’s fine, but it’s going to need some work. They do pull together a solid sounding garage tune on “No Known Drink Or Drug”. While this sounds a little similar to other tracks on here, this one certainly has that fire that Japandroids have been missing for most of this album. In the best way, this track really doesn’t sound like it belongs here at all, it’s a thunderous exciting anthem that I’ve come to know from Japandroids. The only slight issue is that I wish that the vocals were a little more intense, but that’s really all. When the rest of the instrumentals come crashing in in the last minute or so, things end up getting more epic than any other track on here. If they’re going to bring in more synths and more of a Heartland feel, THIS is the sound they need to focus on, it almost brings a little tear to my eye. This album ends off with “In A Body Like A Grave”. This one has one of the more bizarre starts here, it’s broken up nicely though with these opening vocals from King. Here, he doesn’t sound the least bit aged, he sounds rejuvenated and filled with passion to be honest. As a whole, this track does it’s job and reminds us that Japandroids can write one HELL of an anthem when they’re on their A Game. This may not be the classic Japandroids sound, but if they’re going for a newer sound they should absolutely look to tracks like this one for reference.
Rating: 7.2/10
Give A Listen To: “Near to the Wild Heart of Life”, “True Love and a Free Life of Free Will”, “No Known Drink of Drug”, “In A Body Like A Grave”
Overall Thoughts: I wish I could have enjoyed this album more, I seriously do. Japandroids have taken years figuring out this new sound, and it's a alright start. But there's still so much work that needs to be done if they want to get back to the Indie Juggernaut that they once were. However, they CAN still write an anthem, and at their best they can still bring in fiery, passionate performances. If they can get their genre all settled, they can easily be massive again.
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