Evidently this band has never heard of the sophomore slump.

An interesting bedbug-removal strategy.

Once upon a time, I went to a concert in downtown Toronto and watched an opening act that forever changed my musical taste. The unassuming four-piece scattered across the stage seemed out of their element: standing in front of a sold-out crowd and about to perform songs most of the audience had little interest in, a small detachment of what I assumed to be the band’s friends starting chanting for them. The skinny guitarist at the front meekly leaned into the microphone, grinned a cheeky thank you, and launched into a series of hellfire tracks that not only blew away my initial expectations, but also made an instant believer out of me. This band was PUP, and this story took place shortly before the release of their debut self-titled album. Since that evening roughly three years ago, PUP has been touring relentlessly – to the point of literal physical and mental breakdown – and some of their experiences inspired their sophomore effort, The Dream Is Over.

The Dream Is Over is very much a culmination of the band’s growth thus far. Playing several hundred shows with only one album of content has allowed the group to tighten up their performances and settle comfortably into their own sound, and the progress is apparent in this offering. Overall the record feels more aggressive and urgent, almost to the point of chaotic panic, than was previously established in the self-titled – the differences can be clearly heard between ‘Yukon’ and new track ‘The Coast’. Yet characteristic PUP signatures still remain: guitarist Steve Sladkowski’s melodic licks are cocooned by razor-wire, ensnared and enhanced by the raucous intervening accompaniment (listen for this especially in ‘Sleep In The Heat’ and ‘My Life Is Over And I Couldn’t Be Happier’). Drummer Zack Mykula and bassist Nestor Chumak lock into wildly shifting and swinging time signatures that convey a sense of anarchistic breakdown as songs drive excitingly onwards. Frontman Stefan Babcock’s snarling responses to the scorn of lovers and industry are defiant and snot-nosed, yet jubilant rather than defensive. The group’s gang vocals are dynamic and engaging, as if beckoning for a heaving audience to scream along and join the fellowship. It’s all there in the classic PUP fashion that has been capturing international attention, but with a bit more maturity and experience to boot.

‘If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will’ — the opening track on the album provided its second-released video.

There is a definite unification of messages in The Dream Is Over: after hitting the road for so long and being forced through the gauntlet of touring growing pains, the lyrics take on a cynical disillusionment to growing up. Yet in the same vein, the songs harness juvenile youth and naivety to weave biting tracks – about the other members in ‘If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will’ (see my previous song review here), about the music industry, about the inevitable exes of life, and more. The group has obviously been through a lot in the past few years, lyrically fuelling the darker sections of tracks that we really only heard in part in ‘Factories’ from the previous album. Although, that being said, tracks do get a bit bogged down in the simplicity of some of the lines. For example, the especially weak choruses of ‘Pine Point’ damper what is otherwise an excellent closing track for the record. Snot-nosed naivety does wonders for most of PUP’s repertoire, but a bit more song-writing maturity would go a long way in shoring up some of the more derivatively plain lyrics.

‘DVP’ — the second track but first release from the record, a long-time favourite of mine.

I mentioned a handful of PUP signatures early on, and there are a few more emergent traits worth highlighting that further solidify The Dream Is Over as another phenomenal offering by the group. One immediate impact the record had was the incredibly slick transition between ‘If This Tour’ and ‘DVP’ (another tune you can read about here) – the songs flow impeccably fluidly from one to the other, which further accentuated the quiet-slow/fast-loud dichotomy between the two and made the tracks a serious one-two punch. There are even well-executed minor transitions within individual tracks that separate the song’s main bodies from their respective bridges and/or breakdowns. The band has tailored these shifts to take tunes in rapid new directions without losing momentum or straying into territories of lengthy self-satisfying instrumentals – listen for these breakdowns especially in ‘Sleep In The Heat’ and ‘Familiar Patterns’. Even the tones between these bridges and between entire songs themselves feel appropriately crafted and calculated without overdoing it, which are both things I seldom say about punk in general. Crisp and clean when highlighting the melody yet fuzzy and dirty when it’s time to thrash and sweat along, PUP’s musical talents lend their strengths to the overtones of disillusionment, loss of innocence, and impatience of surviving growing pains – the latter of which The Dream Is Over barrels through with ease.

Verdict: The genre itself may be polarizing but this album is not – once again I recommend PUP to any music fan, but is an absolute must-listen for anybody who can handle a little spike in their heart rate.