Let’s get this out of the way now: Fucked Up is a band that really shouldn’t exist anymore. Their sound evolved beyond hardcore years ago. The dissonance between their soaring alt-punk sound and Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham’s vocals becomes more and more noticeable at each release. It’s never been as apparent then on Glass Boys, the band’s fourth album. In 2011, after the release of the band’s excellent concept album David Comes To Life, Damian seemed to hint that he might be leaving the band, suggesting fatherhood had sapped his ability to tour. While those rumors ended up being false, it’s always in the back of the listener’s mind that the next Fucked Up album might be their last (at least in their current form). Glass Boys, unlike their epic previous album, is a simple, more straightforward punk album, dealing with themes of age and artistic merit. For those expecting another epic, you may come away disappointed. For those that simply love punk music, you’ll be happy to know that while it may not reach the lofty standards the band has unintentionally set for themselves, Glass Boys is at worst an excellent rock record. There is just too much talent here for them to ever produce something less than that.
That talent is what sets Fucked Up apart from virtually any band in punk right now. Regardless of how you feel about Abraham’s vocals, the rest of the band (Mike Haliechuk, Josh Zucker, Ben Cook, Johan Falco, and Sandy Miranda) have merged into a truly cohesive unit. This was already apparent on David Comes To Life, but is now confirmed on Glass Boys. The timing is impeccable throughout the album, and the composure of the songs is perfected almost to the point that it sounds robotic. As a self-styled punk band, they almost out-talent themselves from the genre, but even as a straight rock band they are head and shoulders above most of their peers. They could be an instrumental band and dominate the rock scene. They do have lyrics, though, and noticeable vocals. Abraham is still the same raspy, enthusiastic singer he has always been on Glass Boys. His style can make it hard to understand the lyrics, but he can always give you the broad strokes based on the speed and intensity of his voice. It’s funny in a way that they have become so perfect that it ends up taking a little bit of the life out of some of the songs on Glass Boys. The formula is still engaging, but at some points it sounds so uniform that you just want something to fall apart or build up into a new avenue. It largely only occurs on the first half of the album, but is more noticeable on Glass Boys than it has been on their other albums.
This may be in some way explained by the sheer obtuseness of some of the lyrics on the album, specifically in its first half. There are multiple allusions to stones and statues, and allusions to Greek and Roman myth (though that is not as surprising once you’ve seen the cover art). It’s just another way this former hardcore band spills out of the mold that was created for them. But, for a band that relies so highly on reaching their listeners emotionally, it builds a wall between the artist and the listener that we’ve never run into before. There are some obvious allusions here, such as on “Echo Boomer” dealing with age and expectations, but more than ever the listener has to parse their own understanding. Mostly this is fine (and this reviewer often times enjoys that aspect of music the most), but the metaphors feel stretched and unrelatable at times.
The album is relatively short at ten tracks. The first half can feel a little meandering at times, but “Sun Glass” is a stand out, and “Echo Boomer” and “The Art of Patrons” contain some nice moments. The album truly shines in its back half. This starts with “Paper The House,” the most complete song on the album. It builds and breaks and switches time in a way that only Fucked Up can pull off. Included in here as well is “Led By Hand,” the song featuring J. Mascis. It’s maybe not that surprising that his guitar work would fit in perfectly with Fucked Up’s sound, but it is still nice to hear him on the track, both with guitar and voice. He’s not the only guest star on the album, as Gord Downie (The Tragically Hip) appears on “The Art of Patrons” and George Pettit (Alexisonfire) appears on “The Great Divide.” These little cameos add another flavor to the mix on the album, and help their respective songs stand out against the crowd. The album ends with the previously mentioned “The Great Divide,” which features a great thrashing shift, and the devastating title track, “Glass Boys.” That final song brings back the feeling of youthful regret in old age, and the inability to stop the flow of time from changing you and the world around you.
Glass Boys is an album about defeat in a way. There is no stopping change, no matter how much we want to live in our memories; our hopes; our dreams. It’s a realization a band that is now in its middle age is ready to accept. While Glass Boys might not reach the lofty expectations of the band’s previous albums, it is still at an equal quality to the majority of punk albums that have been released this year so far. If that is what is considered a lower ceiling for the band, then they will be fine. If it ends up being true that they’ve outgrown each other, and this is the last album we get from them, its themes make perfect sense as a farewell album. Hopefully the contradictions that make up Fucked Up won’t pull them apart any time soon, but if this is the last major release we get from their current formation, then Glass Boys feels like a perfect send off.
Review by Justin Owlett, who, like this album, consists mostly of glass and boy.
