Jesca Hoop- Memories Are Now Japandroids- Near to the Wild Heart of Life

So that’s Japandroids - they’re old souls for sure, but clever enough to side-step tired tropes without succumbing to crippling rock traditionalism. It’s take two of a song that opens with a line about being “lit up tonight, and still drinking” to end the night with crowdsurfers cycling towards King and Prowse, you can imagine how this goes over a few minutes before midnight. It’s especially familiar because they already played it once before that night, a fact that the band acknowledges but ultimately chooses to ignore, much to the delight of the delirious crowd. The concept of home springs up repeatedly in Near To The Wild Heart Of Life's first two songs, as the title track details a need to leave ('And it got me all fired up / to go far away') and 'North East West South' paints a lovingly patriotic, riff-rocking picture of Canada and its gravitational pull.“Younger Us” is busted out, but that’s not all submitting to the true encore spirit, exuberant Celebration opener “The Nights of Wine and Roses” follows to close the set. But the themes here are a bit more expansive: Released four and a half years after Celebration Rock, these eight songs are clearly the product of reflection, upheaval and the soul-searching that so often comes with travel and time off. Japandroids' new album is titled Near To The Wild Heart Of Life, so those themes remain in full effect from the opening drum fills of the title track. Listen to the Vancouver duo's 2012 masterpiece Celebration Rock - one of the most appropriately titled albums of all time - and you'll hear song after song fixated on a bone-deep intention to feel more, stay raw, let rip, and 'yell like hell to the heavens.' A natural resistance to aging and decline provides plenty of subtext, but really, the band specializes in anthems about the power and the glory of simply feeling alive. But for Brian King and David Prowse of Japandroids, that central pursuit is often majesty itself. Rock 'n' roll so often boils down to simple pursuits: the search for love, sex, escape, revenge, satisfaction, or some signifier of freedom and home. Japandroids: Near To The Wild Heart Of Life

Jesca Hoop- Memories Are Now Japandroids- Near to the Wild Heart of Life