The fifth album by Toronto’s PUP provides light-hearted fun for the broken-hearted, with clever lyrics bolstered by their brand of rough-around-the-edges pop-punk. The sounds collected here might take some of us back to the days before Jimmy Eat World became a radio staple, and the more emotional side of the hardcore scene was made of ritualistic bonding sessions at house shows on the outskirts of college campuses. The raw organic feel of the production is not unlike Weezer’s Pinkerton, as it captures the live feel of punk but leaves room for the vocal melodies to shine.
PUP’s dense, rough-hewn guitar tones on Who Will Look After the Dogs? would have been radio-ready in the ’90s. Yet they’re not attached to one mix for the entire album, as they let the bass slide up closer to center stage at times, to create a more effective place for the vocal melody to sit. Stefan Babcock’s lyrics are just as clever as ever on “Concrete” (“We were only 18, you watched me spill my guts all over the concrete/Told me I should stay, like a witness can fix this“) while the guitars jangle and shimmer in equal measure. The complete product delivers a live feel yet balances the varied tones, allowing them to cut past the otherwise dense mix as needed. And drummer Zack Mykula sets out to get the rest of the band’s adrenaline pumped even when they hit a groove meandering around poppier pastures.
What sets the band on the most effective path is when their lyrics are sharp, and contrasted by an underlying current of 1950s pop, as heard on highlight “Hunger For Death.” It features the album’s strongest lyrics (“I wanna know/How you explain/All that violence/Still running through your veins“) and allows the needed space for Babcock to deliver them. They hit a similar stride on “Falling Outta Love,” which finds the vocals sitting back into the guitar as more of an effect; it is another song that finds the underlying influence of ’50s-era pop as an influence. Unlike a great deal of the emo bands from the ’90s that PUP often recall, there is less of a hardcore influence to provide a more aggressive punch.
PUP continue pushing forward on the path they’ve been on over the past decade, yet moving in a rawer rock direction at times. Who Will Look After the Dogs? features some of the band’s most soul-baring narratives while providing a playful soundtrack for those who can only laugh at their morbid self-reflection.
Label: Rise
Year: 2025
Similar Albums:
PUP : Who Will Look After the Dogs?
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