Musical unraveling

The Canadian punk rock band PUP (an abbreviation of Pathetic Use of Potential) released their fourth studio album, THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND on April 1, 2022.

The album opens up with the song “Four Chords.” The track begins with a relatively monotone-sounding rant about the music industry over a guitar strum of—as the title states—four chords. It soon launches into an epic guitar solo with the same melody as the start of the song but is much more intense. 

The second song, “Totally Fine,” has a title that is ironically quite antithetical to the sound and message of the song. The song sounds very angry and harsh, while the lyrics ramble about an unhealthy lifestyle, but being unsure if that lifestyle is a marker of something bad happening or just the reality they live in. 

A love song on the track is seen in “Robot Writes A Love Song”. The lyrics of this song create an analogy between the inner workings of a computer or robot and the way in which falling for someone and later falling out of love for someone can create somewhat of a system crash in the human body. This song has more of a longing, melodic sound.

“Relentless” builds from the beginning, going from being a melodic strum to intense guitar at the end of the song. The lyrics of the song express frustration with the world and how no matter how hard one may try, it is still likely one may come to fail. 

“Waiting” is an intense, guitar-heavy track with lyrics that are more shouted than sang. The song is aimed at a toxic romantic partner who keeps pushing away, but at the same time, will run back when they aren’t feeling too great about themselves. The song asks the question, why still wait around? The answer is to still wait around if it’s a possibility that they will be waiting for you eventually. 

“Cutting Off The Corners” is a sadder, more melancholic song from the project, where one is reminiscing about an old relationship that they miss, and are begging to be let back in. 

The project finishes off with the angry song “PUPTHEBANDInc Is Filing for Bankruptcy,” a song that mourns the loss of youth and questions the viability of a music career past a certain age. It speaks of being grateful for a career in the industry paired with a worry about being able to continue. 

This album from the critically acclaimed punk rock band covers a variety of sounds, moods and themes that all ring true to the title of the project. Through the twelve tracks, the listener sees, due to a variety of causes, the members unravel.