FU

Fucked Up

Dose Your Dreams

Merge Records

Here's yet another band cast out of Matador, who apparently got caught up in the same mishegoss that caused Cat Power to be dumped when she wouldn’t ape Adele. But who needs the major indie? Fucked Up have made the best album of their career. It recalls a lost classic, Game Theory’s Lolita Nation, college rock's answer to Sgt. Pepper, with its crazy experiments, very wide ranging mix of styles, and lyrics that are both poetic and trippy. 

Dose is a love story. David, of Fucked Up’s 2011 masterwork David Comes To Life, is now an office worker. He meets Joyce, the elderly woman of his dreams, an angel, but then she’s gone. Will Joyce’s other lover, Lloyd, find her too and be with her for eternity? 

Love is bought and sold, like any other impersonal consumer product, which also makes Dose very political. Its moods vary from extreme sadness and depression to celebrating life and love, all set to music that is unbelievable. It’s all pop--hardcore pop, digital hardcore, adult rock hardcore. By expanding their range like never before, they go beyond labels like post hardcore and become a class all their own.

A whole cast of musicians plays on this album, too many to list here, but special attention must be paid to lead vocalist Damian Abraham and guest vocalists Miya Folick and Jennifer Castle, all of whom are superb, as is M. Haliechuk. They are the vocal glue that makes the pieces fit, and embody all the emotional states on the album adroitly. 

Three cheers to Merge for releasing this. Don’t let this slip through the cracks. I’ve not heard another album quite like it all year, and this late in, I probably won’t. It's just wonderful, and thought provoking too. 

Andrea Weiss