Year of the Pig

Canada's Fucked Up have been making strides in the punk community for many years now. Various seven inches, full-lengths, and now this-an 18 minute progressive, arty (not the bad way), and F*CKING PUNK song(s) has them taking ceiling heights. This song/album is a myriad of what Fucked Up has come to enjoy: gruff vocals with vivid lyrical imagery, followed with original punk, melody, and experimentation. Shed away most of the minutes of this, and you'll find what's great in every good Fucked Up song, only taken to the extreme. Fucked Up have a way with taking extended arrangements and still somehow keep them teetering on the border between genius and boredom. This album has lots of peaks and valleys and the production follows suit as well. This album is great because the lack of studio compression, and the natural, warm tone of all the instruments. The drums are the focal point, and along with Jennifer Castle, Fucked Up continue to push the boundaries of punk, all without a myspace, a band website, and without the fluff of shiny promo pics and the rest of the music industry's tools of death. Just buy this record, its the last piece of art I've heard on vinyl in a while.