Fucked Up :: "The Other Shoe"

Arguably the most esoteric hardcore band ever, Fucked Up will return this summer with an 18-track punk opera entitled, David Comes To Life. Lead track, "The Other Shoe", only the first of four song previews to be released in the coming weeks, somehow finds a addictive hook sung by an adorable female voice amidst surging guitars and Damien Abraham's screamed lyrics. The downbeat picks up steam and the band continues to return to the chorus, "We're dyin' on the inside/dyin' on the inside" even with the addition of momentary halcyon guitars at the top of the mix that recall more mid-career U2 than NOFX. It is allegedly about turning these broken insides out. But Abraham demurs, "new lyrics follow the same old meaning", in some declaration of an attempted new world, this grand collision between so much delicacy and so much rage. For a band whose name both violates the New York Times' editorial guidelines and also ends up being mentioned in the papers' pages, these type of disjoints square the circle. Feel furious, afraid and smile just a bit.

Listen :: Fucked Up - "The Other Shoe"