the second long playing album from fucked up is the first for new label matador records. fucked up's synthesises diverse impulses into an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living). merging elements of hardcore songwriting with up to seventy tracks of guitars, organs, winds and vocals, (including eighteen guitars on the first single, the fatalistic 'no epiphany'), the music remains iconoclastic and startling, with pink eyes' vocals front and centre. guest musicians, of course, abound, notably gorgeous female voices such as brooklyn's vivian girls and toronto's katie stelmanis. though fucked up remain punks at heart - if quixotically diverse ones - they have created a great, weird, heavy record that stubbornly sticks in your brain and your heart.