SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PUP – WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS?

PUP
WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS?
LITTLE DIPPER/RISE RECORDS

Toronto punk rock icons Pup have returned with their fifth album, Who Will Look After The Dogs? Recorded over a three week span in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Death Cab For Cutie, Mannequin Pussy) and is their first major release since 2022’s THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND. The result is a cathartically hard-hitting LP that explores themes of isolation with a yearning for personal growth.

Who Will Look After The Dogs? opens with “No Hope”, an anthemic opener full of crushing distortion, ripping, fuzzed guitar licks, and waves of feedback. For all the sonic bedlam, the song is catchy as all hell, with a chorus of backing vocals designed to be sung back to the band by a sold-out audience. “No Hope” sets the bar for Who Will Look After The Dogs? for the band to follow with “Olive Garden”, the final single to drop before the album. Through an onslaught of power chords, the verses of this track are seriously heavy and find a sense of balance through another chorus that benefits from pop sensibilities.

Pup walks such a line throughout not only the remaining singles – “Paranoid”, “Hallways”, and “Get Dumber”, featuring Jeff Rosenstock – but a majority of the material on Who Will Look After The Dogs? The result is an album that marks a step up in songwriting, but nonetheless feels safer than one may want from their punk rock. Still, among the twelve tracks, there are moments of greatness. The first comes in the shape of the obliterating and melodic “Get Dumber”, a track that embraces an abrasive edge alongside harmonically and rhythmically dissonant riffs. Similarly, “Paranoid” soars for its post-rock aesthetic and driving chorus.  While Pup appears to be at their strongest when embracing a heavier, punk sound with a sense of reckless abandon, the closing ballad, “Shut Up” is a vulnerable track that resonates with an echoing sense of longing.

Pup does a great job of dressing up radio friendly alternative rock as chaotic on Who Will Look After The Dogs? For their fourth outing, the band has honed their songwriting, developing a sound that benefits from and underlying sense of refinement underneath the distorted, fuzzed out, and massive reverberation that has become the heart of Pup’s sound. Through this, the band continues to grow into uncharted territory on Who Will Look After The Dogs?

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