This Toronto punk band love a good gimmick, from the 12-hour-show they played in 2008, to their 300-pound singer Pink Eyes' love of nude stage-diving. But Fucked Up's real appeal is simple: guitars, three of 'em, though it can seem like thirty. Their fourth disc is an "opera" about a factory yob in 1970s England transformed by his girlfriend's death. Pink's infamous barf-yowl vocal style renders David an opera without much libretto. Still, they still sustain eighty minutes of rousing noise-swirl powerage, like Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade re-imagined by anarchist Yetis. "Realizin' life's a waste," the hero muses, then FU's brutal grandeur turns pain into power.
Listen to "Queen of Hearts":
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