Review Summary: Energetic, well-written and endlessly catchy, The Dream is Over is simply one of the greatest Punk-Records in recent years
There is probably not a single album I’ve listened to more in the last one and a half years than
The Dream Is Over, Canadian Punk-Rock Band Pup’s second effort. Even on surface level the reasons for this remarkable staying power shouldn’t seem too far-fetched: It’s simply that good. Everything that made their 2013 debut self-titled stand out already is still on full-on display here: The band has a real knack for writing catchy-as-hell Indie influenced Pop-melodies that pair incredibly well with their ferocious punk energy. What’s more, touring the hell out of their debut, playing over 400 shows in the process, the individual strengths of the band members have only increased: The rhythmic section is water tight and yet playful, guitarist Steve Sladkowski’s lead work sounds inventive and at times surprisingly technical and Stefan Babcock is still one of the most exciting and unique frontmen in modern Punk. Pup, here more than ever, sound hungry, and they sound fresh. This time around though, all the (sort of Pop-) Punk mayhem is balanced nicely by some extra studio shine and a slightly more restrained approach to composition, giving the album sonically a sense of control its predecessor lacked.
This balance is desperately needed, because, diving deeper into the album, it becomes clear that
The Dream is Over is anything but controlled.
Opener
If this Tour Doesn’t Kill You I Will sets the stage with its theme of having to see the same goddamn faces every day for far longer than any sane human being can tolerate: “Everything you do makes me wanna vomit, And if this tour doesn’t kill you, buddy, I’m on it”, sings Babcock in his trademark yelp-y fashion, just before the full band kicks in to propel the song into a mere two minutes of exhilaratingly fun Punk-vitriol. The song ends abruptly, leading into the catchy guitar lead of the no less manic
DVP. Together, these two songs make up one of the greatest opening one-two punches in recent memory.
And it’s not like the intensity lets up anytime soon after that. Building on the reckless driving metaphor of
DVP’s lyrics,
The Dream is Over as a whole feels like being in a high-speed car chase of repressed emotions: For the moment, you, the evader, are in a kind of perceived safety, keeping your eyes straight ahead, flooring the gas pedal. But subconsciously you know even now that as soon as you take a glance into the rear view mirror, you will see that whoever’s chasing you is getting closer and closer, eventually catching up. So you just keep your eyes straight ahead and hope, against all hopes, for the best.
Yet,
The Dream is Over isn’t any sort of gloomy affair. Sure those fatalistic undertones are present all over the lyrics, but they are hidden so well behind a thick veneer of tongue-in-cheek humor and the overall fun nature of the music that nothing here ever falls into dreaded Emo-clichés.
What’s more, the album is remarkably well rounded compositionally. Most songs build upon each other in some way. The two longest tracks,
The Coast and
Pine Point, close out their respective halves of
The Dream is Over in nice fashion. Both songs take up a somewhat special place on the record. Comparatively calm in sound, lyrically they also allow Babcock to move away from the interpersonal and broaden his songwriting scope to some extent by reflecting on the band’s homeland of Canada. It is a nice breath of fresh air in an album where ex-girlfriends, band-mates and dead pets are called out at every corner.
“You keep trying to rip open old wounds, It’s so embarrassing, don’t you know I’m over you”, goes Babcock on
Old Wounds, the most hardcore influenced track on
The Dream is Over. Elsewhere, like on late-album highlight
Familiar Patterns, he is the one doing the whining: “Following familiar patterns, I’m falling back into ruin”, and, consequentially, “I never felt so ***ty before, I never felt so miserable”. It’s pretty clear that for Babcock, the future doesn’t look too bright.
Yet, the same cannot be said for his band.
The Dream is Over sees PUP improving on all fronts, delivering half an hour full of endlessly quotable, incredibly well-performed and energetic-as-all-hell Punk-Rock that goes deeper than one would expect at first glance. I, for one, cannot wait to see what the band has to offer up on their next release. Though I reckon it will involve a wreck of some sort.
