Fate & Alcohol is Japandroids fourth and final full-length. Written in part while the duo—drummer-vocalist David Prowse and guitarist-vocalist Brian King—were touring behind their 2017 Arts & Crafts debut, Near to the Wild Heart of Life, the album is at once a return to form and a thrilling step forward, a monument to the chemistry they’ve honed over nearly two decades side-by-side. It is their finest work to date, the sound of a band bowing out at the peak of their powers.
Prowse and King met in the early 2000s as students at The University of Victoria in British Columbia. They quickly bonded over a shared love of Wolf Parade and Constantines, bands whose earnest, heart-on-sleeve indie rock would become a blueprint for Japandroids, which they’d eventually form in 2006 as the two found themselves both living and working in Vancouver. “From the moment we started playing,” Prowse says, “there was something that felt special to both of us.”
Over the next 18 years they would make records and play shows like each one might be their last. While their scrappy 2009 debut LP, Post Nothing, brought them renown and critical acclaim outside of Vancouver, its thunderous 2012 follow-up, Celebration Rock, was a breakthrough on every level—a beloved, career-defining triumph that is still widely considered one of the best rock albums of the 21st century. Its success made Japandroids a fixture at festivals and on late-night TV and inspired an equally passionate response from new fans around the world, one that was wilder and more wondrous than anything they could have imagined. Fast forward a few years and they were headlining Toronto’s Massey Hall, a Canadian landmark and national treasure. By remaining true to the joys of their first jam sessions, they’ve become a great and life-affirming rock band on their own terms, in their own way.
When asked to reflect on their career and all they’ve accomplished, both Prowse and King are hesitant to think in terms of legacy. They consider Fate & Alcohol a parting gift to fans, because Japandroids have approached every recording as fans themselves, from influences and ethics to artwork and merch. “I don’t think we’re the most technically proficient band in the world,” Prowse says. “And we’re not the most original-sounding or challenging band in the world. But we’ve always put a lot of passion into what we do, and I think that’s resonated with a lot of people. And I’m really grateful that we could be that band for people, in the same way that so many bands were for us.”
Look back on their body of work and you’ll find songs that feel like they were written for this moment, for an ending. Songs of celebration and adventure and tomorrows deferred, but also, at their heart, songs about the fleeting nature of everything. If Japandroids wrote and played like this—a dream from the start—might end at any second, it’s because they knew it could. All great things do.
Tracklist
Tracklist:
Eye Contact High
D&T
Alice
Chicago
Upon Sober Reflection
Fugitive Summer
A Gaslight Anthem
Positively 34th Street
One Without The Other
All Bets Are Off
