Fucked Up - Zodiac Singles - their best?
Anticipating the release of the what will be surely excellent Year of the Tiger (now a year old, as we’re in the Year of the Dragon, my year, which they had better not split up before doing) Fucked Up and Matador Records put all the previous “Zodiac Singles” in a single, stream-able widget. The Zodiac singles have always been exciting and fascinating experiments from the band, not inhibited by having to worry about Album structure but at the same time allowing the freedom to explore made possibly by the switch from 7” 45’s to 12” LPs.
For a long time I thought these got better and better as they went on (there’s certainly a big jump up from Dog to Pig) but returning to Year of the Rat, I’m now starting to think it might be the best one. People often mention Fucked Up’s ambition almost to a derivative degree; yes, we all know they’re clearly not your average Punk Rock band, they’re signed to Matador, transcend “scenes” and “genres” and play songs longer than 2 and a half minutes. However, despite being 11 minutes long, Year of the Rat is about as true to punk music gets without really deriving too far off that tract. It is, for a large amount, just two chords, only half a semi-tone away from each other. This is songwriting technique I have always particularly loved, because that “slight” movement between chords always inherently invokes an incredible amount of tension, which really is what the best punk music is all about. The way it just explodes towards the end after building on that walking bass-line and the piano progression (not lightyears away from Year of the Pig) is a simple but deadly effect, and it is probably the band’s most effective of the whole Zodiac series.
But then again, the epic structure of Year of the OX is pretty special too. What do you guys think? which is your favourite? is this some of their best material full-stop? Let’s not forget that the Zodiac singles have also produced some of Fucked up’s best B-Sides, such as ‘The Black Hats’ from the Year of the Pig record which still sits among one of my favourite Fucked Up songs of all time.
