Canadian Pop Punk quartet Pup are back with their first album in three years. On Morbid Stuff, the band go all out making it their angriest album yet, while still managing to create some seriously catchy choruses.
Building on the big success of their 2016 breakthrough album ‘The Dream Is Over’, it was clear from the announcement of ‘Free At Last’ that there was high expectations for Pup’s new release. The band shared the chord charts and lyrics to the song and challenged fans to cover it, without having heard the band’s version. The staggering 253 covers were a good indication as to fans excitement for Morbid Stuff, and we’re happy to say that the Toronto-based punks have lived up to expectations!
Morbid Stuff focusses on frontman Stefan Babcock’s struggle with depression through revelling in misery while trying to steer clear of fetishizing mental health struggles amongst musicians. This becomes especially clear on the albums angriest and heaviest song ‘Full Blown Meltdown’, which hears Babcock screaming: “I’ll be sure to write it down when I hit rock bottom / for all the people who love to fetishize problems / and to tell the truth / I fetishize them too / it’s pretty messed up, isn’t it?”.
Amongst Steve Sladkowski’s many strong guitar riffs and Zack Mykula’s high-speed drumming, there’s not a lot to break up the album apart from two calmer intros at the middle and end of the album. ‘Scorpion Hill’ talks about isolating yourself from the world, which is perfectly reflected in the song’s first minute with Babcock’s vocals accompanied by only a sparse guitar and group harmonies. Closing song ‘City’ also provides a bit of calmness after the whirlwind that is Morbid Stuff, until halfway in the song the illusion is abruptly broken as the band crash into the now familiar storm-mode one last time.
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