Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
Matador
San Diegan hardcore quartet The Locust once memorably had the charge laid against them that they were “ruining hardcore for fat kids”. Their matching insect uniforms, analogue synths, surreal song titles such as ‘Priest With The Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Get Out Of My Bed’ and alarming prog tendencies all ran counter to hardcore’s codified genre constraints. You could say that Canadian punk sextet Fucked Up have had the same effect on anally retentive, conservative, rule-book wielding punks. In fact, no other band has done more to revivify punk as a genre in recent years while simultaneously upsetting its self-appointed protectorate on the internet. They are past masters of recording lengthy epics, and the 20-minute long ‘Looking For Gold’ contains a three-minute drum solo. Elsewhere, they have admitted to using Pro-Tools and are generally fans of studio technology all round – both of their previous albums, Hidden World and The Chemistry Of Common Life are lush, modern multi-tracked affairs. Now they’ve gone a step further and released a heavily classic rock/twee indie influenced musical set in Thatcherite Britain, leading where only the likes of My Chemical Romance and Green Day have dared (or been too stupid) to venture recently. The protagonist of this intensely satisfying rock opera, David Eliade, works shop floor in a light bulb factory in a fictional English town and is romantically involved with a radical called Veronica who dies in an accident. David is then prosecuted by Octavio who was also in love with Veronica while having some awareness that he’s a fictitious character. All of which is kind of like some heady mash of Kafka’s The Trial, Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, except with music by Hüsker Dü, Tommy-era The Who, Black Flag and The Primitives. The best ‘punk’ album you’ll hear all year. John Doran
