Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (Album)
I really wanted this release to be more than it is. I recently reviewed their 12” release Year of the Pig. It was an 18-odd minute epic that was pretty damn good. It had dynamics, it sounded fresh and the production was spot on. Unfortunately, The Chemistry of Common Life has none of these. What you have is an average album from a middle-of-the-road Toronto hardcore band. Full stop. It’s funny because some bands have an aura about them that says ‘Yes!’, even before you have listened to them. This is definitely one of them. Maybe it is their ridiculous ‘ironic’ mutating pseudonyms. We have Mr Jo, who presumably took his name from a paedophile, and the tasteful Concentration Camp. Strangely, Concentration Camp is listed as Gulag in the liner notes. Either he has changed his name or the record company thought we wouldn’t know what a Gulag was. Maybe they should have called him Stalag 13. Ironic names are one thing, poor taste ones are another. What’s wrong with good old fashioned punk pseudonyms like Rat Scabies?
And then there is the hype. Fucked Up has no shortage of that. The following from the accompanying press release… “A visceral, breathtaking rollercoaster of punk, hardcore and experimentalism”, expounds Kerrang!. Bullshit. “Fucked up (have) reinvigorated hardcore”, proclaims Mojo. Seriously, if this is classed as reinvigorating a genre, how catatonic had it become? And the press release itself? Well, you can see how journalists have been perverted into writing this dribble. Try this on for size; “(this album) is a dense, orchestral double album containing an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death and the origins of life (and re-living)”. Re-living?? Well this novel language bastardry is referring to their belief in reincarnation stemming from the fact “the band is contemptuous of churches and religion, while promoting an almost Buddhist mysticism”. Then just when you think a Canadian hardcore band couldn’t get any more pretentious they “…pay homage to the random chemical processes that created life on this planet.” Not since Alan Parsons Project released a debut album devoted to the poetry of Edgar Alan Poe (including a half-side string suite) has a band been that ridiculous.
This album is infuriating. So contrived. So bland. Music can be so much better than this. Why do these bands get so much good press? Maybe it is the blog culture. Maybe El Nino. Maybe people haven’t listened to Reign in Blood. Either way, this is litter dressed up as glitter.
