Japandroids Announce Their Fourth and Final Album

Nearly seven years since their last studio LP—four since their live album—Vancouver’s most beloved drums-and-guitar duo are back for one last ride. Emerging after years of radio silence, Japandroids are not gently knocking on our doors to ask if they can come back in, they’re kicking the doors clean off their hinges. I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Japandroids have announced their fourth and final record Fate & Alcohol—two things they’ve built almost their whole career singing about. They drop the album’s title in the second verse of their comeback single “Chicago,” which, in addition to being a potentially perfect needle-drop for the next season of The Bear, is a classic Japandroids romp that sees singer-guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse doing what they do best: making fiery, rugged heartland punk that handles matters of the heart and the body. They’re an elusive band—maintaining minimal social media presence and generally moving in silence during the years between album cycles. On the record, their songs have always shown them to be economical with words and explosive with sound, never wasting the former and maxing out the latter. A single, simmering chord heralds their return and builds up to walloping drum fills and an anthemic chorus. A little more than halfway through, there’s a false flag ending, faking out the audience only to come back in louder, stronger, and more fervent.

Japandroids built their career on songs about nights that feel like they’ll never end, but “Chicago” gives us a morning after scene in which the urgency hasn’t died down, but has only grown more transparent in the light of day. The emotional weight of words begging to be spoken comes down like a hammer at the final verse, and it’s a third-party observer of the central unactualized romance that calls the bluff of the two not-quite-lovers. Their feelings are obvious to everyone—including the waitress serving up their hangover cures—except the two of them. It follows the tried-and-true Japandroids formula instrumentally while showcasing how much more narrative-driven King’s songwriting has gotten over the years.

Fate & Alcohol is a swan song to and from a band whose chance beginnings pulled them from the edge of a breakup after their debut album, an expression of gratitude to all who have inspired them to create their body of work and celebrated it alongside them. Japandroids songs are heat-of-the-moment combustions of uncontainable feeling. On Fate & Alcohol, they’re back for the last time, and they intend to burn out as bright as possible.

Fate & Alcohol is out October 18 via ANTI- Records. Listen to “Chicago” below.