Fucked Up

Someday (2024)

John Gentile

After about two years of sprinting and spitting out releases left and right, Fucked Up have suggested that they’re going to hibernate for a while. This comes at the end of the “Day” campaign wherein the band released no fewer than FOUR albums based around the concept of time.. or a day… or how life is what you make it… and no fewer than FOUR related singles… and that doesn’t even count the live albums and digital only releases slipped in here or there.

The concluding strike, Someday is broad and noisy and chaotic. And most interestingly, it combines the two elements that have sometimes seemed at odds- the frantic punk, experimental side and the, perhaps, more melodic, more reserved college rock side. Opening track, “City Boy” has multiple rolling sections, each which roar with a punk buzz, but that also have that soring, post- Chemcom melodicism. Perhaps equally as interesting, the band, through their lyrics, take the position of a Greek chorus, commenting and even judging the song’s subject, as opposed to revealing some personal feeling or anecdote, as was seen in Glass Boys.

Though, the band doesn’t return to the fill on puzzle inside puzzle inside puzzle of David comes to life, nor they embrace the full on cosmic trip of Dose your dreams. Instead, the band seems to see how much they can challenge themselves within the confines of a 3 minute song while referencing all of their aspects. Take a look at the back-to-back attack of “I took my mom to sleep” and “Man without qualities.” “Sleep,” which features fantastic vocals from Tuka Mohammed sits somewhere between fucked Up as pure pop and Fucked Up as Kate Bush. The band drop’s Mohammed’s ethereal vocals over their blasting melody. But then, “Man” is more of a full on punk shot- Damian Abraham is in fine form, roaring as only he can, only for Max Williams to answer him with a Gary Numan-esque soullessness. It’s an interesting contrast to hear full on fracture human thought bash up against an unfeeling robot.

Yet, while the story of intra-conflict and artistic differences is now ultra-cliché (was there really that much abrasiveness and annoyance within the group or was it all a pro-wrestling put on) now the band seems to be working in tandem- the album is very compact for the group (considering massive epics like Year of the Horse, or even the conceptually epic and totally fanatic Oberon). But, it is perhaps the most varied work for the group and has the most sonic and conceptual pieces welded together out of all the recent FU releases.

The release is constantly shifting and morphing and moving in different directions, but it seems to have a purpose, and even though there are a lot of different steps here, they are all uniquely Fucked Up. To that end, it’s hard to find a better metaphor for the band themselves… also did you notice the ouroboros in the album title and cover…?