Japandroids
"Nearer to the Wild Heart of Life"
(Anti (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK))
Japandroids' 2012 truth-in-titling breakthrough was called "Celebration Rock." On it, the Canadian duo of singer and lyricist Brian King and drummer David Prowse executed a formula to near-perfection: Hard-driving heart-on-sleeve songs gathered intensity as they built toward roughly shouted choruses that exploded in seize-the-day (and chug-a-beer) catharsis. After a long break, the highly anticipated "Nearer to the Wild Heart of Life" is back at it, hurtling down the highway and thinking about what has been left behind, on the title track, "North South East West" and "Midnight to Morning." King and Prowse tend to perform as though everything is at stake all the time, an approach that can wear on the listener, and on the eight-minute "Arc of Bar," the duo sound pretty tired themselves. But when they hit the sweet spot on the noisy and mercifully slowed-down "I'm Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner)" and ecstatic "No Known Drink or Drug," they're as close to the wild heart of the matter as they want to be. _ Dan DeLuca
