Maybe it’s because I’m from Toronto and/or Canada (but it probably isn’t because who cares really), but the release of a new Fucked Up album is really starting to become an exciting event for me. After their 2011 unrivalled hour-plus-long rock opera David Comes To Life (think Lamb Lies Down on Broadway meets Zen Arcade, if I may be so bold ;-O), I’d foolishly assumed that they’d reached their pinnacle.
David Comes To Life was a relentless and vast experience: it was a rare and basically flawless mixture of endless energy bursting with brutally transparent emotion. The band had shifted musical gears in such a way that it’d almost be hard not to be skeptical about their Toronto hardcore roots. And that’s not an insult to hardcore stuff at all, by the way (it sounds as if I’m saying hardcore music is devoid of the things that made up David Comes To Life), but the band had turned over many new leaves in the terms of musical structure, lyrics, and just overall aesthetic. Thankfully — and I’d like to think, deep down, that I had no doubt — Glass Boys proves, with every listen, that there could be no better follow up to such a sprawling epic.
At roughly half of the length of its predecessor, Glass Boys is chock full of the same sort of cathartic power that made David Comes To Life so unforgettable. More and more with each new album, I’ve noticed that Fucked Up is doing something comparable to what Husker Du did back in the 80s. That being basically taking a genre, the genre in which they began/started to flourish, and working it around, sort of moulding it and crafting new ideas out of the same material. Like building new structures with the same blocks, and more and more, bringing new things into the equation while still retaining the most important aspects of the old genre.
The way Husker Du managed to transform from the times of Land Speed Record, or even Metal Circus, for that matter, to Flip Your Wig or Warehouse: Songs And Stories is almost parallel to how Fucked Up has evolved from the hardcore DIY aesthetic to making double LP concept albums. Fucked Up are, most definitely, still Fucked Up, as Husker Du were still Husker Du, but they took what they liked and ran with it and created something brand new out of it. For example, Fucked Up has created some of the most memorable and addictive melodies I've heard in some time, be they guitar solos or vocal phrases — a quality not usually akin to hardcore music.
Also, I think the one aspect of the band, if there is one, that people remain dubious about (usually without having actually listened to it in action) is Damian’s vocals. When David Comes To Life first came out, even I was curious as to how this shift to “poppier” songs would work with Damian’s gravelly screams. I assumed that with the presence of catchy guitar solos and backup vocal harmonies, Damian would sound unquestionably, and unfortunately out of place. Well, such is not the case. In practice, I really couldn’t imagine a better complement. Their aim is clear and determined, and their execution is immaculate.
With Glass Boys, Fucked Up has, more than ever, successfully brought certain ideals and principles from their hardcore origins to a much larger audience. Whether that’s entirely for the better, I’m sure some would argue, but for now, they’ve shone light on some dark corners that otherwise may not have been explored by the masses that appreciate them.
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