PUP: 'Who Will Look after the Dogs?'; Who else but the fans?

PUP is a Toronto based punk band that debuted in 2013 and has been keeping it real with messy raw lyrics that devolve into personal and professional relationships. Who Will Look after the Dogs?, is another album that followed the last album release The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND which was believed to be the final album for the band before they came together once again for this one.

Whether or not this is the final album, I can’t say I wasn’t happy to receive more. I really liked the sound of this album. It really played into a pop-punk high energy base that felt dynamic with the angst that is so well known to accompany the writing and working process of this band. For this album, frontman Stephan Babcock focuses on all the relationships in his life. There is a growth in character throughout this album and it felt like a rediscovering of self. Babcock mentioned that this album wasn’t just a personal rediscovery, but one where the band themselves went back to discovering their love for the music and enjoyed making a project that was messy, imperfect, and so utterly PUP.

I’ve always felt this particular brand of alt pop-punk had a youthfulness to its sound. The frustrations, introspective look, and vented emotions always come through in this format as a voice to a youth movement that is uncaring of the ways in which it is judged. PUP somehow makes this final album sound like a debut. I mean this in the most complimentary of ways. It feels like a work of passion made by a group of young nobodies who come together with a shared determination to make music for the rest of their life. The music feels authentic to the genre, but more importantly to PUP and the fans. Babcock wondered who would look after the dogs when the music came to an end, and I can confidently say that the fans who see themselves in PUP will always care for the band’s realized dreams. Whether or not this is the end, I’d like to think it ended how it started: a manifestation of being cool and young forever. I hope I stay cool in the next 12 years too.

Rating: 5/5