Fucked Up
The Chemistry of Common Life: Revisionist History
MATADOR
With the 2008 release of The Chemistry of Common Life, a cadre of Canucks proved that they were Fucked Up beyond belief. Sure, the hardcore-punks had already won over fans of the genre by this point—and had even converted some indie-rock aficionados to boot—with their Hidden World debut two years prior. On top of that, Fucked Up’s release of roughly three dozen 7-inches made them a ubiquitous force to be reckoned with in the underground. But Fucked Up’s second album achieved the virtually unthinkable: It was the first punk record ever to clinch the Polaris Music Prize, the most prestigious honor that Canada bestows upon musicians. To everyone’s surprise, Fucked Up beat out the likes of Metric, Wolf Parade, Japandroids, and other artists with strong repute and far more pleasant-sounding albums—including Leonard Cohen.
Chemistry of Common Life earned the honor and furthered the band’s widening appeal on the strength of Fucked Up realizing a goal that wasn’t merely lofty but nearly unthinking at the time: They proved hardcore could stray outside the genre’s traditionally narrow confines by incorporating a panoply of rock and roll stylings, all without sacrificing Fucked Up’s reputation as hardcore heroes. Sure, some purists of the genre—who are not only some of the pickiest but also some of the most closed-minded listeners in all of music—reacted to The Chemistry of Common Life with disdain. It didn’t matter, though; Fucked Up’s big gamble didn’t result in career suicide, as many had predicted it might. Championing the band’s daring new direction were garage-rock trio Vivian Girls, City and Colour’s Dallas Green, Austra’s Katie Stelmanis, and Death From Above 1979’s Sebastien Grainger, who each piped up with guest vocals on the album.
The Chemistry of Common Life deserved the reissue treatment in its own right thanks to its prominent placement in the annals of Canadian punk history. Sometimes a band reissues a record because, over time, a freshening up is in order. Remastered sound often contemporizes archival releases much like polish spiffs up a precious pair of dress shoes. In this case, though, the reason for the vinyl re-release is actually tied to a greater endeavor that Matador Records began undertaking with a related podcast starting in April 2022. The label chalked up looking backward to, according to a statement, “The sorry fact [that] we simply cannot remember what happened so many years ago. Seriously.” Seems fair enough. After all, Matador released more essential albums in the 1990s and 2000s than just about any other label of their caliber.
Whether or not you decide to cop this particular limited-edition, translucent vinyl re-release—which additionally comes packaged with the 44th & Vanderbilt EP, adding three Daytrotter session recordings and punk contemporaries No Age’s rework of “No Epiphany” into the mix—every hardcore fan who has an open mind can agree that The Chemistry of Common Life, indeed, should never be forgotten.
