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Released on June 16, 2015 via Deathwish Inc.
It’s been rather a long time since Canadian sextet Fucked Up could be considered a “hardcore” band in anywhere nearing the traditionalist sense. It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of a band once thrust under that label doing a series of EPs themed around the Chinese zodiac would have been laughed out of any mohawked biker gang within seconds, let alone a 21-minute track that feels a bit like the rehearsal for a coming-of age stage drama. However, Fucked Up, for all their love of Cro-Mags and frontman Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham’s menacing stage presence, few bands can claim to have put the artistry in a genre that has merely been the soundtrack to teen revolution (in the mainstream press, at least) as colourfully as they have.
For those reasons, ideas like those expressed on Year of the Hare shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the band. A two track EP that clocks in at just over half an hour and runs the mill from mid-paced smoothness to ragged, but anthemic punk to weird, shoegazy electro-funk with flutes, it’s a release that has a typical sense of the expansive ability of Fucked Up’s musicians, but as might have been expected, great heights aren’t always realised.
The title track is, all cynicism aside, rather spectacular. It starts off with 2 minutes of eerie, barely-there disquiet before taking on a rootsy, upbeat acoustic chord progression. Then comes the resounding vision; lonesome, but sweet piano chords build solitarily from around the 3-4 minute mark before an explosion into one of the epically energetic, raw but melody-heavy gambits that won fans over the early days. Pink Eyes’ vocals are as guttural as ever, but they’re matched out shortly afterwards by the angelic smoothness of Isla Craig, who sings her through a slow, smooth rhythmic crawl that slinks its way around her siren-like countenance. The track regains its punky momentum for its final gambit, and a bit like the best moments from their 2011 full-length David Comes To Life it feels like a final victory.
By contrast, the 8 minutes of ‘California Cold’ starts off like a shoegazy, almost Oasis-esque slow-burner, but with growling, before quickening into a mid-tempo art-rock stomp. “Give me the sound of screams… The blood flows, where it comes from nobody knows” drizzles Pink Eyes darkly. However, even though the track is well played, it doesn’t offer a modicum of its predecessor in the way of interest, even when it spends the rest of its run-time form 3 minutes on as an almost baggy, almost trippy instrumental foray through Stone Roses-esque funk.
Year of the Hare, then, is really a release directed towards those who knew to expect experimentation and an epic sense of wide-ranging musicianship. It’s the kind of release that will appeal to fans who are in deep rather than those who want to know where to start, but the magnificent title track could be considered pandering to both those crowds.
