San Clemente’s heavy rock purveyors shake the tectonic plates
The Return of Tomorrow, released June 2024, is Fu Manchu’s first full length album since 2018’s Clone of the Universe. The California quartet, now active for more than three decades, sounds as heavy as ever on a release that surely sits among their most quintessential.
If there’s a common stylistic theme on The Return of Tomorrow, it’s exactly what the Fu Manchu fan expects: huge, fuzzed-out riffs and stop/start delivery. There are some real heavy hitters here, notably second track Loch Ness Wrecking Machine with its anthemic chorus. This is one of those classic Fu songs that demands to be played live. Haze the Hides, and Roads of the Lowly both wallop the listener with slab-like riffs and almost doomy tempos. The back half of the record is where the tempo eases up and we wander into more psychedelic territory. Solar Baptized winds forward with a super catchy riff and subdued vocals. What I Need, perhaps the track that stands most in contrast with the others, has a bright, airy, main riff that is quite memorable, and segues into some beautiful and relatively clean guitar with whispered vocals. The bassy, mellow album closer High Tide sounds like Fu’s nod to Yawning Man and is the perfect way to end the record.
There isn’t any big alteration to the band’s sound on this record; it could be argued that many of these songs fit a kind of template. There’s nothing wrong with that, though, because the whole album just works. The record flows extremely well and stands up to repeat listens. The Return of Tomorrow sounds like a band having fun and continuing to push themselves creatively while retaining their signature stylistic flourishes.