PUP - The Unraveling of PUPTheBand

Album Review

Apr 3

PUP

The Unraveling of PUPTheBand

You will be hard-pressed to find a band on top of their game like PUP in 2022, and The Unraveling of PUPTheBand is an early contender to be in the top echelon of albums by years end.

PUP stands for "Pathetic Use of Potential" - a pretty apt name for the type of band so tongue and cheek and comedically self-deprecating. However, PUP is living up to its potential with its fourth and most complete album.

The Canadian punk-rockers never seem to take themselves too seriously, observing the mundane banalities of life and the powerlessness of human nature despite how self-aware they are of it.

With their previous album Morbid Stuff catapulting them into the spotlight in 2019 right before COVID stole their ability to take their record on the road, PUP returns with a well-rounded, play to our strengths record full of anthemic choruses, funny/heartbreaking lyricism, and off-kilter riffs.

And it is an album's album.

The journey The Unraveling of PUPTheBand takes us on is a well-thought-out path for the music hiker to take.

Starting with a Jeff Rosenstock-ian piano tune, followed by two straightforward "punk" tunes with surfer-rock-infused notes and catchy choruses.

Fine. Lure us in. Slow and steady.

The Unraveling of PUPTheBand ultimately is broken up into two halves, split up nicely by "Relentless" which takes a bit of the shine off the "everything is fine" vibe of the first few tunes.

”Fuck all the drag, it's endless
You can't kill it like you want it
And when you try to get ahead, you're relentless
You can never admit how badly you want it”

While lead singer Stefan Babcock and his impeccable lyricism shine bright, PUP has always been successful because each instrument works together in the right way.

The riffs are always a step above the basics. No shortcuts, nothing easy.

The solos are sparse but always in their proper place.

Every cathartic chorus is complete with gang vocals and baiting the crowd to sing along at the top of their lungs. Even the outros, like on "Relentless," are thoughtful and precise.

From here, we get our hardest track of the album, as "Waiting" gets heavy and grimey before another sing-along chorus explosion.

”200 bucks a week to talk about my lack of direction? I got a bit of a complex, in case that wasn’t clear from my last three sessions…”

Thankfully, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand is not top-heavy. Each song has a huge amount to offer and enough variation from the last to keep us engaged.

"Habits" is the best track on the album, a classic chord progression with a twist and Babcock's reliable lyrics filling the musical beds with simple earworms like "but to tell the truth…I feel like total shit, whenever I'm with you…"

While Morbid Stuff briefly took deeply introspective trips on tracks like "Scorpion Hill," The Unraveling of PUPTheBand sprinkles it across the entire album instead of concentrating it on a few select tunes.

However, "Cutting Off The Corners" is a bonafide and genuine punk 'ballad' and a needed element to the album's trajectory.

You will be hard-pressed to find a band on top of their game like PUP in 2022, and The Unraveling of PUPTheBand is an early contender to be in the top echelon of albums the year.

The riffs are fresh, the lyricism dripping in impact and singalongability, and the band knows what they do well and gives it to us on a spoonfed journey top to bottom, ending with "PUPTHEBAND Inc. Is Filling for Bankruptcy" - a punk track straight out of Tony Hawk Pro Skater Two.

Hopefully, we will avoid a global pandemic this time around and allow PUP to tour their new music worldwide with ease.

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