Fucked Up
Glass Boys
(Matador Records)

In 2011, after having two albums nominated for the Polaris Music Prize (one of which won) and their punk rock concept album, David Comes to Life, being named SPIN Magazine’s number one album of the year, frontman Damian Abraham made the band’s future uncertain. He discussed an inability to continue touring and the band went on hiatus. Considering those circumstances, the release of Glass Boys is a tremendous relief.

Coming after The Chemistry of Common Life and David Comes Alive, Glass Boys is a fairly straightforward punk album. There’s no grand storyline and little experimentation. But if it isn’t another punk rock epic, it’s still epic punk rock. The music is hard-hitting but melodic and Abraham’s madman yell runs through every track. The band makes room for some keyboards and indulgent guitar workouts, but the album mainly blows by at a pummeling pace. Glass Boys does not astonish like its predecessors, but Fucked Up are still the standard of modern punk. We, the fans, are not upset with this album, but we wouldn’t be upset if the next one was another game-changer.