PUP - WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS?
2025 • RISE RECORDS • PUNK/INDIE
87/100
Every PUP album is always filled with a sense of inevitable calamity. They write albums as if each one is going to be their last. From their break-through album The Dream is Over to the rather divisive THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND, PUP has made quite the career by writing songs about how awful it is to be in a band, posturing themselves akin to employees working at a dead-end job begging to be fired.
They seem so pessimistic about their own operation that sometimes it is hard to see why they continue on, but that exact reaction is what lead Vocalist Stefan Babcock expects. It's all part of their sense of humor. When PUP announced Who Will Look After The Dogs? Babcock said this about the album’s single “Hallways”, “it’s devastating, but in a ‘holy shit this is overdramatic’ kinda way. At least in context of the line that comes before it. That’s what makes it funny to us. That overblown stuff we all say in our dark moments can be hilarious once you’ve cooled off a bit.” This type of flair for the overdramatic is very evident in the song “Hunger For Death”, which features the repeated line “Fuck everyone on this planet/except for you.” This line is so dramatic that there is no way Babcock didn’t laugh a little bit when he wrote this line.
Who Will Look After The Dogs? is their most successful album in delivering this sentiment. Babcock sings openly about frayed and fraught relationships like he has to get it out of his system before he can heal. This is the same band that sang “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, Then I Will.” But nearly a decade later, PUP is airing out frustrations but this time with a bit of a smile.
Compared to the expansive THE UNRAVELING…, Their new album is much more refined and more focused. There are less big swings than on THE UNRAVELING…. As a result, WWLATD? is much more sure of itself. Even through all the frustrations and dysfunction that PUP has written about themselves throughout their career, they have never sounded more aligned and confident as a band. As arduous and exhausting touring and promoting is, It is still always an uncomplicated winning recipe to put four best friends in a room together.
The confidence they have on this record makes it all the more powerful. The album is loud and catchy, full of high tempo melodic juggernauts made for the Pit. The guitars on “Olive Garden” sound like they are on the verge of toppling over but instead just get taller and taller like a Jenga tower. The one-two punch of “Paranoid” and “Falling Outta Love” midway through the record is the highlight of the record for me, personally. The former features an absolutely infectious shout-talk chorus into a stellar breakdown, and the latter’s melodic chorus so cathartic that it will have you crying in The Pit. It is 6 minutes of PUP’s songwriting at its finest.
For all of the self-deprecating humor. What makes WWLATD? stand out amongst the band’s catalogue, is how much of a role acceptance plays. Working with veteran Producer John Congleton, PUP simplified their approach to the record. There are times when they sound like they are genuinely having fun playing together. There is a fun moment on “Get Dumber” where you can hear Jeff Rosenstock mess up a lyric and they kept the take anyway (You can hear Jeff say “ahhhhhh lyrics” in the second verse).
This feeling of acceptance also runs rampant in Babcock’s lyrics. Many of the songs here are about the end of a decade-long relationship and the ensuing grief. The penultimate track “Best Revenge” illustrates the best way to get back at someone is to move on. The title of the album comes from a line from the stunning “Hallways”, “I’m losing the will to keep dragging on/But I can’t die yet ‘cause who will look after the dog?”. Even when things are tough there is always something to keep you going.
PUP has put out a stellar album where once again everything is on full display. Fear, Anxiety, pain, annoyance, etc. What makes WWLATD? Such a special record in their oeuvre is the optimism, sense of humor, and perspective on full display. If PUP writes each record as if it is their last, it is nice to see that absolutely nothing is held back.
PLAYER COMP: RUSSEL WESTBROOK – Plays with so much heart that you can’t help but root for them