Near to the Wild Heart of Life by Japandroids

Near to the Wild Heart of Life, the third album from Vancouver duo Japandroids, came out on ANTI- on January 27, 2017, and it's the record where Brian King and David Prowse set out, in their own words, to make a proper studio album. After the sweat-and-beer roar of Celebration Rock, this one cleans up nicely: more polish, more room, the same big hearts.

With the two of them living in different cities for the first time, they wrote it across a year of sessions in Vancouver, Toronto, New Orleans and Mexico City. Longtime engineer Jesse Gander recorded it and Peter Katis mixed it. King still sings and slashes at his guitar like Springsteen fronting the Replacements, Prowse still pounds the drums and hollers along, and the title track, "No Known Drink or Drug" and "North East South West" were the singles. They took it out on an even bigger round of touring.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.