This album isn’t out yet. So you’re getting (for once) an early review out of us. It comes out on June 7th. If like me you preordered it from Matador you already have it in its MP3 and/or Flac forms. I’d like to revisit this review when the vinyl arrives and maybe I will, but for now you get the digital review. There’s four singles off this album (Queen of Hearts, The Other Shoe, Ship of Fools, and A Little Death) that you can download on the Matablog for free right now and if you haven’t done so you should. Before I had access to the rest of the album I listened to these four songs incessantly. I was obsessed with each of them. Obsessed, but also worried that the other fourteen tracks wouldn’t be as good. I almost didn’t even want to hear the rest of it cause I knew my expectations were already set too high.

Besides these four singles I also had for some time now the “David’s Town” Comp LP from Record Store Day. This album is mind blowingly bizarre. A concept within a concept if you will. Alright so basically it’s a compilation of different bands from the town in England where the story in “David Comes To Life” takes place. But actually it’s more than that, because none of these bands even exist. The town itself doesn’t even exist. So really it’s members of Fucked Up and their friends creating all these different fictional bands and playing songs that they think they’d play in the fictional town they created on a comp that’s fictional and yet I still own it. Even weirder is that if you didn’t know all that and just listened to it, it actually sounds like a bunch of different bands doing legitimate songs each in their own voices. I’m not sure if this is brilliant or insane or both… but I love it. Me and P listened to it and just straight tripped out at it. If you missed it on RSD, you get a download of it when you preorder the album. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to pay to download it separately at some point too. But check it out. If only for the track My Old Man’s a Ginger.

Also by preordering the album they sent me five other non-album tracks immediately. A couple of them I believe will be on the four 7″s that come out late June. They expand on the narrative and introduce new characters and side-plots. Again this is insane as the album itself is comprised of 18 tracks.

Finally after all this from May 10th to the 13th I was able to download a different side of the double LP each day until I had the whole thing. I almost feel like this whole process of even getting to hear the album in one sitting is one big mind-fuck. I’m actually having a hard time writing this review as a result because my brain is moving in like 200 directions at once trying to properly explain all there is to explain. Maybe it’s best if I just cut to the chase… should you buy this?

Yes. Yes you should. In fact if it’s not too late, do the Buy Early Get Now Preorder and get all the extra shit that goes along with it too.

As I’m writing this paragraph I’m struggling to find my earlier point. Which I believe was this… can an album with this much going on, with this much hype, with this much build up, actually live up to everything that preceded it? And the answer in this case is “fucking hell yeah it can”. Not every single song on this album is gold. I actually think “Chemistry of Common Life” might be a little stronger overall. Particularly “David Comes To Life” starts falling off a little for me on Side D. But it still rules and my opinion of Side D can and probably will change for the better as time goes on. Everything about this still puts most if not all other modern day Hardcore to shame. It puts most if not all concept albums to shame. It puts you reading this right now to shame. And it’s exceedingly weird in the best possible ways. Right now Running on Nothing is my favorite track. Last week it was sShip of Fools. Before that it was The Other Shoe. Just when you think you’re getting a handle on this album you realize you’re still clueless. And in that respect maybe it excels past the rest of their albums.

Check it out. Check it hard. O Canada.

Back to “In And Out Of Control” though. The best part about this album is how they are able to pay tribute to acts like The Ronette’s and Buddy Holly musically but lyrically take things in a completely different direction with songs about abusive relationships exploding in the streets (Bang!), overdosing (Last Dance), rape (Boys Who Rape Should All Be Destroyed), runaways committing suicide (Suicide), death (Oh, I Buried You Today), and sadistic women mad for violent men (Break Up Girls!). They’re a little bit like The Ramones in this sense (they even reference listening to Rockaway Beach at one point). These songs are either fucked up odes to all the worst parts of the 50s and 60s turning idealistic notions of the time on its head, or they’re a direct reference to the modern day sugar coated by the sweet sounds of the past. Either way it’s a hell of an engaging listen, total Rock and Roll, and well worth buying. It’s worth picking up for the songs Gone Forever, Breaking Into Cars and Heart of Stone alone. I picked up the vinyl and not only does it come with a download code but the MP3s have been specially mastered so they don’t sound like shit when you’re listening on the go. Not much more that you can ask for.