You know that thing where you’re trawling through end of year “Best of” lists, and listening to samples of things that catch your eye/ear? And how sometimes something new to you will make you sit up and take notice? Inevitably you buy the album in question, finding out in the process that there’s a whole labyrinthine mythology and a substantial discography attached to this odd band you just discovered, never having heard of them before? Yeah, that! I blame long-running ‘zine and source of all things weird and wunnerful, The Organ for this. Find it here: Organ Albums Of The Year 2025. If you’re brave enough, you too can trip down this lysergic wormhole, as deep as you like!
Fucked Up, a band with a name that is as good a place as any to start when attempting to describe the zaniness therein, hail from Toronto, and have been in existence for a quarter of a century. There are 42 (!) releases on their Bandcamp page! Gawd! Luckily for me I seemed to have turned up at the party just as it is REALLY getting into gear. Year Of The Goat is part one of a finale to the band’s career-long Chinese zodiac series. In 2026, the Goat is to be followed by the Monkey, and then the Rooster, over five hours of music, “…that will revisit and recontextualise elements from the previous 9 zodiac entries as entirely new music.” Luvvly!
Epic stuff indeed, and their untramelled ambition is matched by the full-on maximalist musical engorgement on offer here. The trend for throwing everything at the wall has been with us for a while now, and while Fucked Up certainly use elements of the “everything everywhere, all at once” school of musical thought, it never gets overwhelming. Genres are not so much mashed up as completely ignored, anything goes. This punk spirit is welded to a musical quest for the ever shifting horizon that ensures one’s attention never wanders during these two long excursions into an alternate poetic wonderland.
When you strip it all back, the Goat is essentially led through its 55 minutes by guitar riffage, and Damien Abraham’s guttural but always intelligible vocals playing off Tuka Mohammed’s more traditional voice, a simple yet effective style contrast that draws the listener in. On top of that there are layers. Many, many layers! Trying to draw parallels with other bands and sounds would take all day and is ultimately pointless anyway. You may hear everything from the Dead Kennedys to Yes, and back via The Beatles and Slipknot, or whatever else your brain latches onto when you listen to this album. Which you will, I hope!
Grass Can Move Stones Part 1: On Earth – Year Of The Goat tells the story of Monkey (given voice by Abrahams) and Good Goat (Mohammed), “…two young friends who embark on a journey of self-discovery, encountering gods, magical creatures, and dangers along the way, loosely following the narrative of the fundamental Journey to the West, written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en.” The two protagonists are joined by a cast of many, but I struggle to find information as to who plays what, which only adds to the all-enveloping air of mystery. The whole thing is lovingly illustrated and narrated in the manner of an epic poem in the lyric booklet, making this a lovely artefact.
I’m told that the live Fucked Up experience is a full-on assault on the senses with much use of live looping and sundry off-stage shenanigans. I so wish I’d seen them in London when they used a snow machine, resulting in chaos as the mosh pit struggled to remain upright! I’d also imagine that this sounds great on a pair of decent headphones. I shall have to try that, in the somewhat more benign confines of my listening space!
Another reviewer describes coming to this cold and finding it “impenetrable”, and while the first couple of listens leave me looking for ways in, repeated listens reveal Fucked Up’s world to be a welcoming and of course, a very psychedelic place. I await the forthcoming instalments with much anticipation!
TRACK LISTING
01. Long Ago Gardens (28:12)
02. Rivers And Lakes (27:14)
Total Time – 55:26
MUSICIANS
Damian Abraham
Jonah Falco
Mike Haliechuk
Sandy Miranda
Josh Zucker
~ With:
Tuka Mohammed
Tamara Lindeman
Jennifer Castle
Dwid Hellion
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Independent
Country of Origin: Canada
Date of Release: 5th December 2025
LINKS
Fucked Up – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram
