David Comes to Life by Fucked Up (2011)

The third studio album from the Canadian rockers is a full blown rock opera set in 1970s and 1980s England. The story involves unreliable narrators and meta-narrative plot devices. Heady stuff. Drummer Jonah Falco described the album as a love story between the title character David and a girl named Veronica.

The character of David Eliade had appeared in previous Fucked Up songs such as "David Comes to Life" (from Hidden World) and "David's Christmas". The reason Fucked Up made the album a rock opera was to contrast rock opera's perception as being indulgent with the rawness of hardcore punk.

The story is really something else. David Eliade is a worker at a light bulb factory in late 70s–early 80s England. David meets Veronica Boisson, an activist, and the two fall in love. Though David enjoys being in a relationship with Veronica, David starts to worry that something wrong is going to happen. The two build a bomb as a form of protest and attempt to bomb the factory. The bomb fails to destroy the factory, however, and ends up killing Veronica in the process. David feels sorrow for spending time with Veronica, thinking that it was all a waste, something the narrator agrees on. David also feels guilty for causing Veronica's death.

We're then introduced to an acquaintance of David named Vivian Benson, who tells David to not trust narration. David then realizes that he is a character in a story, being controlled by Octavio St. Laurent, the story's narrator. David and Octavio fight for control over the plot, but David loses the fight and comes out feeling worse.

Vivian then reveals to David that she witnessed the bomb blast, and that Octavio was the cause of Veronica's death. Octavio accepts that having Veronica die was wrong. However, Octavio defends his action, saying that because he was cast as a villain, he was merely doing his job and should not be blamed. Veronica's spirit returns to David and David realizes his time with Veronica was worthwhile. David, glad with his experience, returns to the factory to relive everything again. Insane.

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