Fueled By Ramen
2006
Wonderland
About This Album
Along with like-minded Seattle peers Gatsbys American Dream, Forgive Durden continues the recent overarching punk fascination with the concept album on their Fueled By Ramen debut, Wonderland. More specifically, the band produces an album of critical social commentary based around the imaginary world of Wonderland -- a place driven by corporate greed and corruption where people slave away all day in cubicles unfulfilled and ultimately watch their lives pass them by. So, uh, who's to say Wonderland is merely a figment of the band's imagination? The story line unfolds and escalates with multiple characters leading the way (the land's creator, unhappy workers, etc.) before ending on a rather dismal note for the workforce ("No matter how far we go/There's no escaping the glow...Wonderland is now our home.") Fantastic artwork is included throughout the liner notes that play a notable part in moving the plot along with wonderful visual representations of the songs. Musically, the group is at heart a pop-punk band, but Forgive Durden indulges itself significantly with diverse instrumentation (throwing -- among other things -- banjo, saxophone, mandolin, and keyboard parts into the mix) and varied tempos that often change course, speed, and direction multiple times within the same song.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,5,7 and 10)

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