3C 48: Reporting from Outer Space | QSO Media

A collage of album covers by Canadian rock band, PUP. In the centre, an image of a car driving alongside a painted sunset is seen. The car is a sky-blue sedan, and is being driven by dogs. In the background, a billboard that reads "WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS?" is visible. Behind this image, the band's four other album covers can be partially seen. Clockwise from top left: The Unraveling of PupTheBand, featuring a burning cartoon head; The Dream is Over, showing a flaming car wreck; Morbid Stuff, featuring a peach background and cartoon figures following each other; and PUP, a close up of some black and white lips and teeth. In the foreground, in the top right of the centre album cover, the QSO logo can be seen, consisting of red and white pixelated text reading QSO.

Rank the Albums – PUP


Canada’s finest have five excellent records. Let’s rank them.

Rank the Albums is a series where I listen through a particular artist’s catalogue, listening to every album, and expressing my thoughts.

I’ve been ranking albums for a while (excuse the nearly two-year gap), so it was only natural I’d get to Canada’s favourite pop-punkers, PUP, at some point. I first heard of them in 2014, but somehow didn’t listen until I saw them opening for The Menzingers in 2018. And what an incredible impression they left – even my dad left with a copy of The Dream is Over, becoming a staple in his car alongside Metallica’s Garage Inc. and the first Sam Smith album. What can I say? He’s got eclectic tastes.

Back to PUP, though. What a band. To me, they’ve risen above the hordes of easycore and pop punk groups through their infectious shout-along melodies, witheringly dry lyrics, and meaty riffs. Even in their self-titled debut, everything feels huge. They’ve gone from strength to strength since, and now have five fantastic records in their arsenal.

With the recent release of the wonderful Who Will Look After the Dogs?, let’s take a loving look back at their titanic back catalogue.

5. PUP

PUP’s self-titled debut album shows their skate-punk influences more strongly than any of their subsequent albums. Not a bad thing when it’s executed as well as it’s done here. The energy is off the charts on this one, only slowing down for the glacial behemoth Yukon and closing murder ballad Factories.

Elsewhere, the album’s stuffed with more piss and vinegar than many bands have in their whole careers. Reservoir remains one of their finest scream-along anthems, and Dark Days is pop-rock perfection. While their lyrical talents were yet to reach their peak, the sheer adrenaline rush of PUP is well worth a revisit.

Best track: Dark Days gives me shivers. It’s less heavy than some of the ragers on here, and that allows the polyphonic melodies to shine. Plus, that time change in the breakdown? Phenomenal stuff.

Honourable mention: Going two for two on basic choices here, but Reservoir is so good, I don’t care. What a chorus!

4.5. This Place Sucks Ass

While not a full-length album, This Place Sucks Ass continues their hot streak from Morbid Stuff, showing that some of their throwaway tracks are as good as other bands’ A-sides. I’m a firm believer that Edmonton should have made the album proper – perhaps as a bridge between Full Blown Meltdown and Bare Hands?

Elsewhere, the singles Rot and Anaphylaxis are catchier than a broken zip, and their cover of Grandaddy’s A.M. 180 rivals Say Sue Me for my favourite rendition of the song.

This place may suck ass, but this EP certainly doesn’t.

Best track: Edmonton is like a shot of energy after the ominous squall that is Floodgates. Both songs are heartbreaking in their own way, making for an unforgettable one-two punch to close the record. Incredible stuff.

Honourable mention: Anaphylaxis is the funnest song I’ve ever heard to use the word testicles. That’s gotta count for something, right?

4. The Unraveling of PUPtheband

A PUP album opening with a Broadway-esque piano sequence? What is this?! A really great album, that’s what. Canada’s finest made their weirdest album (so far): A sort-of concept album about signing to a major label and an ensuing crashout.

Unsurprisingly, it rocks. The first half is especially incredible: after the calm of Four Chords, Totally Fine smashes through as one of their heaviest (and best) singles. We’ve then got two bangers in Robot Writes a Love Song and Matilda, which are utterly charming in their weird wonderfulness.

While the second half doesn’t quite stack up to this opening run – what could? – the gargantuan closer, PUPtheband is Filing for Bankruptcy finishes things off impeccably.

Best track: Robot Writes a Love Song is as catchy as it is quirky. The juxtaposition between the grunge riff and the delicate keys, plus the swaying feel of the second chorus, is sensational.

Honourable mention: Matilda is a beautiful ode to an old guitar, complete with a ripper of a solo.

3. The Dream is Over

Most bands can only hope of making an album this good. The lads in PUP had half an hour, two guitars, a power drill, and a dream, and fuck, they made it work. The most surprising thing about The Dream is Over isn’t that it’s so good, but that they went on to make two albums that surpass it. In some ways it’s an excellent bridge from their punkier roots to the anthemic noise-rock they’d go on to perfect.

Compared to their debut, their storytelling is sharper – The Coast takes Yukon‘s supernatural horror narrative to deeper depths, both metaphorical and literal – and the hooks are hookier, with classics like Familiar Patterns and Doubts boasting some of their finest choruses. Plus, it’s got Old Wounds on here, one of the heaviest songs they’ve ever written, and an absolute riot.

Best track: It’s no surprise that DVP remains their biggest song. It’s a lightning bolt of energy causing three minutes of fruit punch-flavoured chaos. Phenomenal.

Honourable mention: In an album where every song feels like a hit single, Can’t Win is one of the best deep cuts.

2. Who Will Look After the Dogs?

Their latest, and nearly their greatest. Dogs finds PUP building on the sludgy goodness of Unraveling, turning everything up to 11. The lyricism is as sharp as ever, with Olive Garden being a favourite of mine. It’s also perhaps their heaviest album yet, with Paranoid going full doom metal in its breakdown, and the riff of Needed to Hear It rivaling Alice In Chains at their most intense.

It’s not all crushing brutality, though. Hunger For Death is a tender earworm for the ages, and Shut Up is their best closing track yet, growing from a sparse acoustic ballad into a monolithic squall of distortion. Time will tell if it usurps my number one pick.

Best track: It’s difficult to say as the album’s still fresh, but I’m going for Concrete. It’s got one of the biggest choruses and some of the most gut-wrenching lyrics in their whole discography.

Honourable mention: Best Revenge continues Familiar Patterns’ tradition of saving one of the heaviest cuts for the penultimate slot. Perhaps my favourite Adele reference in any song.

1. Morbid Stuff

Maybe it’s because it was the first album to be released after I became a dedicated fan of theirs, but Morbid Stuff is my favourite PUP album. In some ways, it feels like their biggest album; the production feels beefier, the hooks are stickier, and the sequencing is unrivaled. Hearing the title track for the first time cemented them as one of my favourite bands.

Songs like Kids and Free At Last are as intensely emotional as they are anthemic and catchy. It never lets up, and despite being one of their more sonically diverse albums, it all coalesces perfectly, from the thrash of Full Blown Meltdown to the ominous drone of City.

One of the few albums I’d consider 100% perfect from start to finish. What a band. What an album.

Best track: It’s a tough choice, but I’m landing on Kids. As soon as I hear that riff I get shivers.

Honourable mention: Literally any other song on the album would work here but I’m choosing Closure for nostalgia purposes. Plus, the way it segues from Scorpion Hill? Perfection.

AC is the Head of Written Content at QSO Media. They’re totally fine. Read more of their writing here.

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