Fucked Up ‘David Comes To Life’ (Matador)
The band with one of the (potentially) most offensive monockers in musical history return! Once you’ve got past the name (if you didn’t hear their excellent 2008 album Chemistry of Common Life, tut tut), you are really in for a treat.
The Canadian hardcore punk band still cling to the DiY ethics that they started out with. But the situation has moved on. This is a concept album; a rock opera set in a Fictional British town during the dark days of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. Not many hardcore punk bands from anywhere tend to do that. I have no idea if this album will ever play as a west-end musical (I hope not). Ever. But I do know that this makes for a very impressive listen.
It’s divided into four acts as a lad called David meets a girl called Veronica, they fall in love and then she dies. David grieves and nearly loses his mind, believeing himself to be responsible.It becomes clear that it wasn’t his fault as other characters come forward to show the part they played…Stand out tracks on this album include ‘Queen Of Hearts,’ ‘The Other Shoe’, ‘Running On Nothing’ and ‘Ship Of Fools.’
If anyone still believes in 2011 that punk is one-dimensional then this album should silence them once and for all. A brave and very exciting album.
****
David Comes To Life is out now on Matador.
Fucked Up ‘Queen Of Hearts.’ mp3
Fucked Up ‘The Other Shoe.’ mp3
The official website is here