japandroids near to the wild heart of life lyrics

The real issue with the album is that the big bold statements and open songwriting that used to feel so earnest, just feel like something we’ve been sold a million times. Unfortunately it’s a road that Japandroids paved themselves, and now they don’t feel as welcome in their own path. We live in a post-Japandroids world because in their absence, we’ve also musically accepted substitutes. The rugged individuality that used to inspire us now just rings out like a horror story of modern America. As I listen to lyrics like, “she got me all fired up, to go far away,” I think about how the internalization and a focus on one’s self is what got us to this point. The difference now is that Near to the Wild Heart of Life, feels like an album that was written during the 4-year absence, about that period, and now we live in a post-Brexit world with the fears and realities of a Trump presidency. The bold proclamations sculpted in Celebration Rock, seemed to mirror a bold way of life, an idea of taking to the highways and getting away, an indie-rock answer to Springsteen’s Born to Run. Obama was beginning his second term and for most 20-something Americans, life was starting to be good again. When we saw our last Japandroids album, it was 2012 and one could argue that North America had recovered enough after the great recession to go back into existential mode.

Maybe we live in a post- Japandroids world.

Japandroids near to the wild heart of life lyrics