PUP - WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS?

Not many bands can go five for five when delivering iconic, next level records, but Canadian punks PUP have continued their hot streak with ‘Who Will Look After the Dogs?’.

By this point, they’ve already delivered an iconic debut, a scene favourite in ‘The Dream Is Over’ and a perfect example of experimentation with 2022’s ‘The Unravelling of PUPtheband’. In many ways, ‘Who Will Look After the Dogs?’ is a back-to-basics response to this, capturing Stefan Babcock and Co at their front-footed, punk best and reminiscent of those early years, in style if not substance.

And on opening trio of songs – ‘No Hope’, ‘Olive Garden’ and ‘Concrete’ – PUP very much fulfil that brief; they’re snarling and lithe pit-friendly anthems, very much in the mould of the cuts found on their incendiary self-titled debut or brilliant follow-up.

Yet, this isn’t just a victory lap, with PUP leaning on the past to take themselves forward. The nihilism of old – the abandon and attitude of the likes of ‘Full Blown Meltdown’ and ‘If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will’ – has been, for the most part, erased, replaced by a broader, more empathetic worldview. Things are no longer so binary or black and white, and this is reflected in the track ‘Hallways’, which lends its lyrics to the album title.

It's in these moments – and the closing quartet of songs are absolutely brimming with this – that PUP finally make the leap from bratty punk oiks with a lot to say into punk poets with the means of expressing their rage and dissatisfaction. In fact, in ‘Hallways’, ‘Best Revenge’ and ‘Shut Up’, PUP find themselves on a different level to their peers and contemporaries. Punk music should hit hard, and it should be affecting, but these are songs that resonate long after they’ve finished.And this is where PUP are at their best. These are songs that you need to sit with, that need to be understood and digested soberly. There’s so much more here than just a sharp lyric and a pointed barb, but there’s real emotion – whether that’s distress, anger, regret, even joy – there. There are no easy answers, just four friends muddling their way through life and trying to put words to what their feeling. It’s the crowning glory of their peerless five-album run.