Japandroids have returned with their first new album in seven years (not including 2020’s live LP) called Fate & Alcohol. The first single to be released from the project, “Chicago,” begins with—surprise, surprise—a flurry of guitars beneath Brian King singing of “two shots of the good stuff” and “being tired of being tired.” A bit cliché, I guess, but also, this shit rips harder than Malört. When he sang about sweating through his shirt? I felt seen.
“On our last record we wanted to broaden the definition of a Japandroids song and purposely left our demos quite open and malleable so that we had more flexibility to experiment in the studio,” King shared in a press statement. “At the time, this approach was new and exciting, and inspired us to be bolder, to take more chances. We were aiming for a more cinematic take on our signature sound. This time, we made certain that every song ripped in our jam space before [producer] Jesse [Gander] ever heard it. If you listen to our first demo of ‘Chicago,’ it’s obviously much rougher than what you hear on record, but it’s all there. Even on a blown-out iPhone recording, the energy was obvious, and the feeling cut through loud and clear.”
Check out the single below, and pre-order Fate & Alcohol here.
