Fucked Up – Dose Your Dreams
The fifth album from Toronto's Fucked Up, Dose Your Dreams could well be their best effort yet
In 2011 Toronto punk sextet Fucked Up released their consensus-held opus David Comes to Life, a game-changer not just in punk music but transcending into all guitar-led music of this side of the millennium. It was difficult imagining the band ever being able to top such a bold record as the double LP "rock opera" which solidified the band's already pretty well-known status as being more than just a punk rock band in a way that was ambitious and boundary-pushing yet still highly melodic and enjoyable.
Indeed, 2014 follow-up Glass Boys suggested that perhaps the band had burned themselves out. While there were some good moments there, in retrospect it stands as the band's weakest and least confident release. So, what an absolute pleasure it is to receive Dose Your Dreams, exactly ten years on from their Polaris Prize-winning album The Chemistry of Common Life in what could well be their best effort yet.
Dose Your Dreams picks up on the 'David' story, first introduced on debut Hidden World and the titular aforementioned epic, and sends it into a new psychedelic world beyond the mundane of David's office job when we meet him on opener None of Your Business Man. From there we're taken on a journey through many different genres, concepts, voices and anthems (I Don't Wanna Live in This World Anymore) which all manage to work cohesively to create an unbelievably satisfying whole by the time of finale Joy Stops Time.
Listen to: None of Your Business Man, I Don't Wanna Live in This World Anymore, Joy Stops Time