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Jun 03, 2014 Issue #50 - June/July 2014 - Future Islands By Hays Davis

While Fucked Up may be referred to most often as a punk band, even a hardcore punk band, each of their last few albums poked a few holes in that envelope. Sure, Damian Abraham (Pink Eyes) provides the definition of in-the-red punk vocals on each and every song, but the band has explored a wide range of inventive approaches to their surrounding sonics.

That said, Glass Boys is their most straight-ahead punk rock record aside from the Epics In Minutes and Couple Tracks compilations. While 2011’s David Comes to Life was hardly an inhibited affair, after that ambitious double-album rock opera, Glass Boys is Fucked Up distilled nearly to its throbbing core.

A deceptively sweet toy-piano intro opens the album before “Echo Boomer” throws open its doors to elephant-gun drums and forest-clearing guitars. “Touch Stone” crashes in like an atom smasher, with Abraham leading the charge: “Hear and I’ll never be alone.”

With its shifting rhythms, “Warm Change” swings mightily, with Sandy Miranda’s (Mustard Gas) bass ricocheting around unison guitars before a stinging solo takes over as a reminder that this band can deftly realign its stylistic focus in a blink.

Is Glass Boys more Fucked Up than its predecessors? No more or less, as it’s always a kick to hear the Toronto musicians coming up with fresh new ways to orbit Abraham’s vocal juggernaut. But hearing the singer howl “The way I make my living has driven me insane” on “Paper the House” sounds like he might beg to differ. (www.fuckedup.cc)

Author rating: 7/10