Album Reviews

Near to the Wild Heart of Life
Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life
7.0
 on
Saturday, February 4, 2017 - 12:58
submitted by
Thomas

On their third album, Vancouver’s Japandroids have taken the scrappy sound from their previous releases and gave it an upgrade. Now it’s as huge as the crowd at a Trump rally. It’s true. The songs on “Near To The Wild Heart Of Life” come with big drums, reverb-drenched guitars and the kind of life-affirming crescendos laced with plenty of whoa’s that will go over especially well at festivals all over the world. Just have a listen to the title track and “North East South West”.

The only problem with the album is that all of the songs on here follow the same pattern and end up sounding like the same track being played eight times in a row. Sure, they’ll throw in some electronic bleeps here and there, but it’s basically the same thing over and over. It’s a great song. There’s no denying that. But maybe next time they can try writing more than one?

 

Track listing:

  1. Near To The Wild Heart Of Life
  2. North East South West
  3. True Love And A Free Life Of Free Will
  4. I’m Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner)
  5. Arc Of Bar
  6. Midnight To Morning
  7. No Known Drink Or Drug
  8. In A Body Like A Grave
Tom Dumarey
Tom Dumarey

Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.