By anchoring Glass Boys to the real world Fucked Up have made an album that reveals things not only about themselves, but about punk rock as a whole, and in the process have made a record that may very well be their masterwork.

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It is rare to say that the ends justify the means, but here it does. Even if the method of delivery is not the most effective, it’s a positive thing for both artist and listener to be pushing further, trying harder, and exploring uncomfortable, new terrain.

Fans of Fucked Up’s more experimental efforts may be left slightly underwhelmed by ‘Glass Boys’, but for what is at heart a hardcore band, it is still a hugely ambitious and exciting record, that hits top gear almost immediately and barely shifts down until the final piano melody of its eponymous closer.

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The actual 21st-century irony of Glass Boys is that the album that questions whether Fucked Up has left behind its founding principles for greater acclaim and larger audiences actually includes the group’s most approachable material yet.

By taking a more aggressive stance, quality control-wise, Fucked Up arrive at their most cohesive record thus far.

Where 2011's brilliant but exhausting David Comes to Life presented a twist-filled musical of fictional ill-fated revolutionaries, Glass Boys is less narratively ambitious but arguably more sentimental. It looks inward, asking hard questions.

Glass Boys is the sound of a band reflecting on itself, trying to negotiate the world of success and get out in one piece.

As usual there’s a lot of depth here and over time, more and more will be revealed. Glass Boys might not be as expansive as its predecessor, but it is no less impressive.

There’s still fury and power in the three-guitar assault, but gliding alongside it are smoother touches

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It seems increasingly unlikely that Fucked Up might assuage their punk guilt by playing straight-up punk again.

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For all the talk of Fucked Up getting streamlined and concise, it turns out that streamlined, concise songs are nowhere near as interesting as their wildest, most highfalutin concepts; Glass Boys finds a Great Punk Band making a Good Rock Record that’s weirdly superfluous.

Glass Boys is easier to navigate, and doesn't engender the same awe. But its brevity allows Fucked Up to loosen a little -- to indulge in sounds and tones they forwent when their albums sprawled.

While 2011's David Comes to Life was hardly an inhibited affair, after that ambitious double-album rock opera, Glass Boys is Fucked Up distilled nearly to its throbbing core.

There’s a sense of real risk to the bold decisions that define their back catalogue that’s thrilling to behold in action, and it’s missing from Glass Boys.