- Artists:
- Fucked Up »
- Label:
- Matador Records »
Whether they're having the likes of J. Mascis, Moby or Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington guest at their recent twelve hour gig in New York, or appearing on the (admittedly hidden-in-a-bag-of-free-gifts) cover of NME, Fucked Up certainly seem to be the hardcore band du jour.
Indeed, Harrington and singer leader Pink Eyes share more than just mutual admiration; both squeeze into XL clothing, sport bald head & beard and are prone to end up stripped down to their underwear and bleeding at their famously raucous live shows. But Fucked Up are definitively their own beast, having beguiled fans with 18 minute singles, lack of MySpace and bizarre monikers since their inception in 2002.
The Chemistry of Common Life is going to do nothing to taint this reputation - it's inventive, incessant, demanding and immersive. It’s also seductive; even those who dismiss hardcore as nothing more than a bunch of sweaty guys listening to bad metal and bellowing like mating rhinos may find themselves drawn in by it's velvety charms.
Opener 'Son the Father' almost sets a trap for the unwary, starting with a gentle Gaelic flute before quickly demolishing it with a wall of frenetic thrash, distinguished by a brattily delivered " hard enough being born in the first place, who would ever want to be born again" The diversity of their influences is what impresses, as almost every song here is enhanced by some unexpected feature, be it guest Katie Stelmanis-Cali's operatic vocals on 'Royal Swan' (against which Pink Eye’s gruff delivery sounds like a rhythm track), or 'Magic Word'’s percussive organ and farsifa riff, which wouldn't sound out of place transposed onto a world music record.
Despite this wealth of charming curve-balls, the beating heart of almost every track is pulse-quickening riffage and vein-poppingly delivered vocals. Pink Eyes' themes range from religion and mysticism to literate navel-gazing, but in this still finds room for the likes of "Hands up if you think you're the only one who's been denied", which no doubt draws the expected crowd reaction live.
Truth be told the record is hard to quantify - it's so dense and layered that attempting to describe why it works just makes it seem contrived, while it's success should measured by the fact that it sounds anything but. There may be more guitar tracks here than on Be Here Now, but unlike that unruly mess each song is so carefully constructed, with every element meshing seamlessly with the rest, that the band must have felt that with every session they were laying down a magnum opus.
To cut a long story short, Fucked Up are probably going to be making a lot of new friends this year. Even if their guitarist is called Gulag.
- This Week's Singles: 06/02/12 Fucked Up, Mount Eerie, Disclosure, The Dø
- Watch: F^^ked Up - 'Turn The Season'
- Leeds Festival - A DiS Summary
- Playing records with Neil Hamburger
- Leeds 2011: A Festival Diary
- F^cked Up announce trio of UK shows
- In Photos: Reading Festival 2011 - Day 3
- Leeds Festival 2011 - Drowned In Sound's Friday Blog
Fucked Up
I am one of *those* people who generally dislikes hardcore
but digs this record.
think a lot of people are
it's not really hardcore I don't think, more like melodic hard rock with a hardcore vocalist
sorry
how the hell is this only a 7/10, everything you said was positive?!
cus
4 is not recommended, 5 is average, 6 is good but not for everyone, 7 is recommended for most tastes, 8 is pretty exceptional everyone should check it out, 9 is album of the year contender, 10 is perfection
i d/led this off emusic
the other night. i liked bits of it, more specifically the music, the singer stopped me from enjoying it though. i'm gonna give it more listens and see if i can get past his voice, cos it did seem like there were some really good tunes there.
It took a few listens
but now it's clicked I'm really enjoying this record. I didn't like his voice at first but now I don't think it would work so well with anything else.
Best guitar record of the year
IMHO.
Exceptionally good.
A massive disappointment for me...
I'm a big fan of Hidden World and their earlier singles, and I find this new record a big confusing mess. It's definitely not a punk album, nor a hardcore punk album. It seems the band have tried to combine the passion of Hidden World with the sonic experimentation of Year Of The Pig and just ended up with wavering, unfocused prog-rock nonsense. The fury, energy and, most notably, the strength of their previous work has been sacrificed in favour of weaker, noodly meanderings.
Where's the immediacy? Where are the songs? It's so watered down and non-committal. I can only surmise that Fucked Up have... ahem... "sold out"?
have you listened to Hidden World?
go do it now if not, its even bigger and even better (but we warned its a hard listen and takes even longer)
nah thats ridiculous
I honestly don't believe they ever cared about "selling out" or anything like that, when they started they just started as a DIY punk band but no one would have noticed them had they not taken a risk on 'Hidden World' it now seems to me that their just running with their success because they can, and its fun, I don't believe its done anything to the music.
This record is really really good, it has a lot of hypnotic points, its just not as good as Hidden World. You can't think of it as a punk or a hardcore album because it seems to me that the band aren't interested in sitting in one scene - that's what makes them special - you just have to stay with them and go along with what they're doing if your going to enjoy it.
I think this is still a great album and still has a lot of interesting stuff going into it, but I'm surprised that your saying this is "weak, noddly meanderings" cuz if anything I'd say Hidden World is more like that, that's what makes it so challenging and rewarding, this record if anything is just a more digestible 'hidden world'
ah, i'm rambling
you may be rambling
but you're also tempting me to get hold of Hidden World
Good points...
And I am probably being harsh on the band. But I just can't love the new record. I love the fact that the band can go in these directions and don't feel the need to sit within their pre-determined genre or classification, but in this case I feel it is at the expense of the immediacy and fist-clenched raw power of their earlier work. While it is unfair to expect more singular works of genius like Baiting The Public or Two Snakes, I did expect something more powerful than this watered down hard rock album I purchased. Y'know?
you really should
its probably the last of the very small list of albums to have a really massive effect on me.
Hidden World is just such a challenging and thus rewarding record because it really pushing boundaries within the walls of punk and hardcore music very much in the same way Black Flag did (I find it amazing that comparison isn't made more but then how many people actually LISTEN to Black Flag?). The songs are so epic and huge sounding because they're so long and have time to expand that it requires a few listens to hear all the things that are going on in pretty much every indivisual song.
it is watered down
I do agree but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
the thing is their early stuff is pretty much powerful better than average intelligent hardcore, and then Hidden World was such a jump forward that it seems like they had to take a couple steps back. A lot of this record feels like the missing link between the two even though i'm fairly certain most if not all of these songs are new. This is going to split fans anyway, there are people out there who can't listen beyond 'Epics in Minutes'.
hit that earlier than intended
anyway...
Chem Com is not as good as Hidden World, that's pretty much fact, but its still a damn sight better than most other bands who aren't clever enough to push things forward more. They are pretty much the ONLY band from a hardcore/punk background bothering to do something useful/acknowledge the genre's power and this album is kinda like edited highlights of Hidden World which means you cut to the chase a lot more but as a record can't develop as much (that said it still took a few listens of this for me to get it)
Hopefully seeing them twice this week (will be 7th and 8th time now I think) and I'm excited to hear the new stuff live
Great Album
Whatever this band does is just so enjoyable. I'm not a hardcore music fan, but I love what these guys do, perhaps just because it's so much more melodic than your typical hardcore.
As far as comparisons to Hidden World, what's the point?
Hidden World is a 72 minute opus that has a really great flow from start to finish, but you really have to be in the mood to get through it in one sitting.
Common Life is a taut under-50 minute effort that goes down so smoothly it's over before you can ever lose interest. I like the variety on this album and the more concerted effort to break the bonds of typical hardcore.
All in all, I'd have to give this a 9. It's just one of the most solid albums of the year. I've read a lot of critics who say they can't understand how it could appeal to ANYONE because of its mix of styles. I would disagree and say that its variety should help bridge the gap between different genres. I hope that's what eventually happens. I have a feeling that in a few years people will consider this a classic.
Cheers.
Drowned in Manchester #15 – May 2013
armchair dancefloor 39: Mount Kimbie interview, Bobby Browser, Powell, Move D, Leon Vynehall...
DiS meets John Lydon - Part 1: The Man
DiS Does Singles 20.05.13: Paramore, Laura Marling, The Replacements
DiS joins the Music Alliance Pact + May 2013's global MAP compilation
Drowned in Bristol #12
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
Comments
- Post a new comment on this article