Japandroids - Near To The Wild Heart Of Life

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Be still our wild hearts.

It’s been five years since Japandroids’ last full-length, 2012’s ‘Celebration Rock’. In the half a decade that’s passed between that and their latest, ‘Near To The Wild Heart Of Life’, a lot has changed - but some things stay reassuringly the same.

Keeping their bar set reassuringly high, the band’s third album may see them heading away from the sweaty basements and closer to the Springsteen-esque stadium anthems they’ve always had within them, but it’s anything but overblown. Instead, as with the album’s opener and title track, it’s packed with the kind of songs that demand attention then grow further with every listen. Be still our wild hearts. Christopher Jones