Fucked Up – Another Day
Fucked Up Records
Fucked Up’s sixth LP, 2023’s One Day, stands as one of the boldest formal experiments in their discography—a not-insignificant distinction for a band renowned for their genre-bending provocations and double-album rock operas. For One Day, the Toronto hardcore punks imposed a single-day time limit for composition and recording. (They doubled down on that stress test mere days before the release of their new album, Another Day, live-streaming themselves working in the studio for 24 hours straight. That marathon session yielded another brand new LP: the daffy, sleep-deprived Who’s Got the Time & a Half?)
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The compressed timeline meant One Day’s songs felt sharp and instinctive, proffering a streamlined version of the band we rarely hear outside of one-off 7-inches. The experiment worked—Fucked Up had never sounded less “experimental” than they did on One Day.
Another Day isn’t bound by the same strict formal constraints as One Day or Who’s Got the Time & a Half?, but it shares a strong connection to their instinctual verve. Like its spiritual siblings, the album prizes clarity of ideas and presentation: Another Day’s songs are straightforward, luminous, and anthemic, without any major structural or stylistic detours, and frontman Damian Abraham’s bark is regularly joined by honey-voiced harmony singers. Guitarist Mike Haliechuk takes over lead vocals for the power-poppy “Follow Fine Feeling,” just as he did for One Day highlight “Cicada.” Hardcore, always a pliable concept in Fucked Up’s hands, frequently feels very distant.
The Fucked Up catalog is forever in conversation (and conflict) with itself. This is a band who is currently nine-twelfths of the way through a series of EPs based on the Chinese Zodiac, who supplemented the landmark David Comes to Life concept album with a compilation of fake bands from the universe of the record. Hell, they just risked kneecapping their own album release campaign by spontaneously rushing out a competing LP. Context is everything with Fucked Up, and the more context you have, the better their records work.
Another Day’s most natural companion in the discography is One Day, but it also reaches beyond it to less obvious points of connection. Its confrontational brightness reminds me of the cold-water shock of hearing the chronically misunderstood Glass Boys for the first time, and the album-closing “House Lights” plays like a mirror inverse of David Comes to Life’s final track, “Lights Go Up.” Another Day isn’t quite as good as the best Fucked Up records; that bar is just a little too high. But it’s still a Fucked Up record, and if you’ve ever loved this band, you know there isn’t another band on Earth qualified to make one. – GRADE: B-
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