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This Is Not How to End Your Band
The final Japandroids album sounds like a retread of better Japandroids albums.
Unlike the duo’s previous efforts, which kick off with slow and powerful instrumentals, opener “Eye Contact High” sees King speed through a series of rock clichés, as if he’s trying to sing as quickly as possible to distract us from his cringey lyrics (“I careened around the corner, saw the 505 / Looking for you, baby, but blinded by the light / The night was numbing, ain’t no one left / Just me, the city, and a cigarette”). And the tame guitar riff on lead single “Chicago” — which seems primed to soundtrack a future fight between Carmy and Richie on The Bear — comes across as a lazy remix of 2012’s “Continuous Thunder” (“Alice” reuses the same template to even worse results). For every White Stripes Icky Thump — a record that successfully builds on what made a band special in the first place and showcases something new — there’s a bland, deflated bookend like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Mardi Gras.
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