Crossfade Reviews: PUP "THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND"

 by Karl W.

PUP "The Unraveling of PUPTheBand"
[Little Dipper/Rise]
Punk Rock/Pop Punk

    When would you consider a band to become one of the greats? Honestly, I thought that when I listened to PUP's masterpiece of a pop punk album, "Morbid Stuff" in 2019. The Toronto punk band have been building up steam for the past decade now, one with the raucous energy of a punk band but also one with a perverse sense of humor about themselves and some of the catchiest songs I've heard in the past few years. I've loved their first two albums "PUP" and "The Dream is Over" when I was just leaving college, and "Morbid Stuff" established themselves as a new favorite to look out for. As such, this has been one of my most anticipated albums of 2022. Yet, even though I loved "Morbid Stuff", I was also looking forward to something a little different, and the lead up to this album definitely promised that with one of the stranger buildups to an album this year and an interesting crop of singles that felt different from some of their other singles. 

    I was admittedly worried on the offset of this album. Four albums in, and I was wondering if PUP was going to veer into a completely different direction or stick on the same path that made them successful on the last few albums, and with "The Unraveling of PUPTheBand"...we end up getting a bit of both? It is by far the most raucous and disjointed album PUP has made, and one that feels all their own. PUP have been independent since "Morbid Stuff", and while that album was their tightest and most polished album to date, "Unraveling" is almost the purest essence of PUP: raucous, tongue-in-cheek, and utterly insane. It feels the most like an album PUP wanted to make, as it is careening all across the rails in the best possible way, even despite a few setbacks that would keep me from calling it their best album.

    The album is true to its name, this is basically an unraveling in a sense, as PUP spirals through a series of complex emotions and irritations of being in a band to begin with. It's not a terribly uncommon theme with the band (after all, they have a song called "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will"), but the theme is taken up to eleven on this album. This becomes evident in the first song, "Four Chords", where lead singer Stefan Babcock appeals to a faceless board of directors by playing piano and making songs that would mass appeal to people who haven't listened to any new music since college and would hate PUP regardless. You get a feeling of frustration and anxiety with the lyrics on this album, as evident in other songs like "Totally Fine", where Stefan is on the brink of tipping over into the deep at any moment, even despite having all you really need. That same feeling of feeling trapped in your own anxiety and sense of dread also applies to songs like "Waiting" and "Relentless". It all culminates into the fantastically titled closer, "PUPTHEBAND Inc. Is Filing For Bankruptcy", by far the messiest song PUP has made, and not to its detriment as the anxiety and dread bubbles over as the foundations of Stefan's sanity and the overall sound of the album crumbles around them. The album still isn't without PUP's general charm either, as "Robot Writes a Love Song" details an actual love story between two computers, with all the references of beta tests and hard drives that would entail. There is also "Matilda", an ode to an old guitar from the point of view of said guitar sitting in the corner being unused and collecting dust throughout the years, which doesn't stray too far away from the band's other material.

    Now, PUP does a fantastic job at making anthemic punk tunes and "Unraveling" provides plenty of those in spades, to varied results. This is the first PUP album produced by Peter Katis, who has produced for The National and Interpol in the past, and it leads to some of the loudest tracks PUP has ever made, like "Totally Fine" or "Waiting". However, some of the best songs on this album are ones that show more restraint, like "Matilda" with a guitar breakdown during the bridge, or the ballad "Cutting Off the Corners", an ode to a deceased friend that builds throughout the song and leads to a soaring ending. Where the album fumbles slightly is with the synth choices on this album, where the sound feels overmixed and occasionally grating, like on "Robot Writes a Love Song" or especially the opening of "Habits" (an otherwise fantastic song brought down slightly by that opening). There are also a few stylistic choices I'm not terribly fond of, like the layered vocals on the chorus of "Relentless" or the opening of "Grim Reaping", leading to some of the more inconsistent songs in PUP's catalogue. Still, PUP is great at laying down fantastic foundations and great hooks and instrumentation where those issues are pretty minimal.

    I want to go back to my original statement: when would you consider a band to become one of the greats? It might be too ambitious of a statement, and maybe not one PUP would want to entertain the thought of, but they've been on a roll with four solid albums in a row now. Though "Unraveling" is a messier album than their previous one, it encapsulates a lot of PUP's personality and eccentricities into one package. Who knows where PUP will go from here, but so far this experiment hasn't blow up in their faces just yet, no matter how much they tempt it.

Best Songs: "Totally Fine", "Robot Writes a Love Song", "Matilda", "Waiting", "Cutting Off The Corners", "PUPTHEBAND Inc. Is Filing For Bankruptcy"

Worst Song: "Grim Reaping"

Solid 8/10 (Great)