Album Review: PUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?

After going through recent heartbreak, a back-to-basics approach still ended up working for PUP. ‘Who Will Look After The Dogs?’ centres the band back to familiar territory, carrying raw energy that may not have the same melodic firepower as past albums, but with John Congleton’s production and thoughtful writing, PUP manages to carry greatness along the way.

Experiencing such heartbreak within your 30s is a lot tougher to handle than the usual, where there is a lot more to lose in going through that heartbreak and where there are more deeply seated thoughts to ponder. And in such times where there’s so much to prioritize in life as one gets older, holding onto such romance in those years does mean more meaning, especially if it means settling down with the partner that one has been with for so long. But sometimes, those relationships crack up and break apart, eventually putting someone in aching feelings as they go through such heartbreak on their own. This is a tangled range of emotions that PUP has now put themselves into, exploring it completely through ‘Who Will Look After The Dogs?’.

After bulldozing through such compressed production that divisively worked on their last record, ‘Who Will Look After The Dogs?’ pulls back on that compressive heaviness as PUP brings John Congleton to let the band’s melodic punch rush through, giving enough distorted weight without exactly bringing the mix to a compressed mush that put ‘THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND’ end up rather conflicting. This production palette does work well for PUP in terms of their composition strengths, all full of pop-punk heft that is still melodically sharp, paired with Stefan Patrick Babcock’s impactful vocals that allow these songs to resonate well. The grinding guitar riffs and pummeling drums that explode on ‘Concrete’, the glorious bass lines that simmer on the catchy hook of ‘Needed To Hear It’, the snarling melodies that pop up on ‘Paranoid’, the rattling drum and bass grooves on ‘Hallways’, the absolutely infectious hook that Stefan expresses greatly on ‘Best Revenge’, and the frictious guitar riffs on ‘Shut Up’ that’s accompanied by the rest of the instrumentation on the back half of the cut, carrying a sense of courage that works well with the song’s writing.

That back-to-basics approach does complement what the album eventually ruminates upon. Thematically exploring Stefan’s recent breakup, where the effects of that heartbreak sting a little bit more as everybody else in the band is very much married, and the sense of loneliness that Stefan wades into his own does affect his headspace. Eventually writing so much to bring out all the self-deprecating emotions that have always been carried on his writing ever since the band’s debut, but also having enough awkward humor and self-awareness so the tones won’t become so somber, but instead providing some mature insight pour through processing that heartbreak. Showing enough details to realize that both ex-partners have messed up in one way or another, the acknowledgement of what went wrong on Stefan’s part and how, despite fucking certain things in the relationship, it doesn’t exactly wash away the care that he still has for his ex. This sense of thoughtfulness does lead to ‘Shut Up’, where even as both are healing in their ways and focusing so hard on what they’re working on in their lives, Stefan is willing to communicate with that ex, and hopefully, things will end up okay for both of them.

While the album is effective in showcasing punchy melodies and thought-out lyricism, what does hurt the record is just the tunes themselves. Not that they’re completely lacking in punch or tightness, but there are certain cuts where there could’ve been just more oomph to really let their compositions and gritty energy truly shine, most specifically with cuts like the charged grooves on ‘Falling Outta Love’, the stable melodic exhales on ‘Cruel’ that’s released through the guitar solos at the end, and the bolting shouts on ‘Get Dumber’ with Jeff Rosenstock that should hit way harder than it is. It’s quite the frustration, as the band has shown before that they’re able to make such gloriously effective melodies on past records, that it can’t help but feel like there could’ve been more to the composition so that these solid cuts would sound even more potent.

Now that the band has been at it for a decade - with more highs than lows in their discography - the decision to go back to familiar ground on ‘Who Will Look After The Dogs?’ still feels potently sharp in how PUP manages to retain their knack for immediate melodies and emotively raw writing, just now having more mature insight as the band eventually gets older. While some of the tunes may feel like there could’ve been more to make them stand out, the compositions are still tightly strong, and the production from John Congleton only adds some ruffled weight that complements the tunes and the writing. Perhaps, in writing so many of these songs as a means to cope, it opens up the answer to keep moving forward despite the emotional twinge being felt.

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Favorite Tracks: ‘Concrete’, ‘Needed To Hear It’, ‘Paranoid’, ‘Hallways’, ‘Best Revenge’, ‘Shut Up’, ‘Cruel’

Least Favorite Track: ‘Falling Outta Love’