Album Review Fucked Up - One Day

Fucked Up don’t do things by half measures, do they? The last time we heard from them, they delivered a maximalist monolith of a record in the form of 2018’s 80+ minute opus ‘Dose Your Dreams’, but this time around, they’re challenging themselves differently. Album Six was written and recorded in just twenty-four hours, a mammoth undertaking with some very real risks attached. However, this album feels neither rushed nor undercooked – it is, understandably, more streamlined than the Canadians’ previous efforts, but its back-to-basics approach is no less enticing. There’s a playful jubilance to the hop, skip and jump of the riffs in ‘I Think I Might Be Weird’ and the gentle trills of violins behind frontman Damian Abraham’s scratchy roar, while ‘Huge New Her’ charges in with a spirited sense of urgency before the similarly life-affirming ‘Lords of Kensington’ arrives hot on its heels. Arguably, however, a record made in one day was never going to be the most immaculate, and this one does find itself running out of steam a little towards its conclusion without enough robust new ideas. For the most part, though, this bold experiment pays off, and Fucked Up can be admired for their ambition as much as they can for their enviable productivity.