David Comes To Life

Fucked Up's third album falls in the concept-album continuum between Quadrophenia and Daydream Nation: a story complex enough that it requires a libretto to parse (and even then, it's deliberately confusing) set to guitar-driven songs that are loud and noisy, yet pop-hit precise. Seriously, in an alternate universe where classic rock radio's aesthetic standards weren't frozen in 1976, songs as immediate, hard-rocking and unapologetically tuneful as "The Other Shoe," "Turn the Season" and "Ship of Fools" would be massive. On this basis, it's not just reductive, but actively misleading to continue referring to Fucked Up as a hardcore band. Except, that is, for lead singer Damian Abrahams' voice. It's admirable that Abrahams has stayed true to the classic old-school hardcore bark. However, it must be said: he's simply not a very good singer, even within the deliberately constricted parameters of his chosen style. He's no Ian MacKaye, or even a Henry Rollins. On a single or EP, his guttural bellow can be quite bracing, but over the course of 80 lyrically dense minutes, even the female-character vocals by singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle and Cults frontwoman Madeline Follin aren't enough to prevent listener fatigue despite the often-fascinating music. A conventionally pretty singer wouldn't work for David Comes To Life at all, but someone rangier and slightly more dynamic -- Bob Mould, Social Distortion's Mike Ness or even Matador labelmate Kurt Vile (who provides backing vocals on album closer "Lights Go Up") -- would make this a classic for the ages.