Japandroids are calling it a day, and with Fate & Alcohol, the Vancouver duo is going out on top of their game. Japandroids’ fourth and final album is a straight shot of all the good stuff that’s cemented the team of singer-guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse as one of Vancouver’s biggest musical exports of the last two decades: heart-on-fire choruses, maximalist riffs, piledriver drumming, and nostalgia-fuelled lyrics about bleary, boozy nights and hair-of-the-dog mornings that reflect the band’s own globetrotting adventures.

Fate & Alcohol is a victory lap that expands on Japandroids’ fundamentals. There are no jarring experimentations, like the seven-minute, even-keeled “Arc of Bar” from 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life, an album criticized for its lack of climaxes and urgency. Instead, you’ll find an overflow of both on Fate & Alcohol cuts “Chicago,” “Upon Sober Reflection,” and the album’s brightest highlight, “Positively 34th Street.”

Japandroids will be the first to admit they’ve never been the most original nor technically proficient band. But they pour loads of passion into their songs, which is what has always made their live shows so transcendent. It’s a shame they won’t be touring this album, but don’t cry for what’s gone or never was. As King sings, almost to himself, on the gusty “Alice,” “So cheer up, baby. Piss on the past / You ain’t the first, and you ain’t the last.”