Emotionally tortured and self-deprecating Canadian punks PUP let their sadness shine on marvellous fifth album.
As its title suggests, PUP’s 2022 record, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand was an album that tackled the hardships, mishaps and uncertainties of the Canadian quartet doing what they do in the aftermath of the pandemic. But soon after the band announced that record, it was actually the life of frontman Stefan Babcock that started to unravel. In characteristically existential and nihilistic fashion, the first thing the singer wrote at the top of what would become his notes for this record would also become its title: ‘Who will look after the dogs?’
It's an amusingly overdramatic question and a serious one that reflects the trauma that both drives and fills the record. That’s nothing new. PUP – completed by guitarist Steve Sladkowski, bassist Nestor Chumak and drummer Zack Mykula – have always infused their chaotic and cerebral punk with a worldview that’s equal parts morbid, maudlin and humorous. Yet Who Will Look After The Dogs feels more intensely personal than anything the band have made before.
Right from the off, the punishingly kinetic No Hope is a roar of cathartic energy that both carries and contradicts the bleakness of its self-deprecating lyrics. Production courtesy of John Congleton makes it – and the 11 songs that follow – more immediate, more vivid, more visceral. Whether that’s the off-kilter musical and lyrical whimsy of Olive Garden, the devastating hook and chorus of Concrete, or the blistering punk rush of Get Dumber (which features former labelmate Jeff Rosenstock) and Paranoid (not a Black Sabbath cover), these songs feel like they’re being directly injected into your veins. You can’t not feel the devastation in them.
Unsurprisingly, the slower songs here – the hilariously despondent waltz of Hunger For Death, the discordant despair of Falling Outta Love, the abject helplessness of Hallways, the bittersweet catchiness of Best Revenge – also feel like they’re on the verge of collapse, trying desperately to not implode under the weight of their own sadness. That imminent sense of ruin is, however, felt most on the mournful final track, Shut Up. Drowning in raw regret and deep depression, it’s possibly the most melancholy, vulnerable and personal song PUP have ever recorded. But there are still glimpses of that dark humour to offset its dark heart.
This is an album that really hurts – but it’s also a defiant declaration that pain doesn’t last forever, even if it sometimes feels like it might.
Verdict: 4/5
For Fans Of: Single Mothers, The Dirty Nil, Joyce Manor
Who Will Look After The Dogs? is out now via Rise
