PUP’s “The Dream Is Over” [Review]
If that tour didn’t kill them, nothing will.
If it isn’t obvious by now, PUP has become one of my favorite bands of all time. With the band recently releasing the B-sides off of their most recent album “THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND”, they’ve been on my mind quite a lot. One album that I can’t get enough of is the band’s live album that was only available for a day, “Live at The Electric Ballroom”. While I wasn’t able to buy that when it was available, someone graciously uploaded the entire album to YouTube for everyone to hear.
Of all the songs on the live album, my favorite has to be “Familiar Patterns” which persuaded me to look into reviewing the band’s sophomore album “The Dream Is Over”.
Releasing on May 27th, 2016, “The Dream Is Over” debuted with high praise from critics.
“The Dream Is Over” gets its title from something lead singer, Stefan Babcock’s, doctor said. In an interview with DIY, Babcock reveals that he got his vocal cords examined and due to a cyst growing on them, the doctor said “I don’t know how to tell you this, but the dream is over”. Since then, saying “the dream is over” has become a running joke within the band themselves, saying it when something mundane goes wrong. Babcock goes on to say that the album “is about disillusionment, about being in your mid-twenties and starting to face reality in a weird way, realizing that real life isn’t the fantasy that you grew up thinking it might be. You grow up thinking you can do anything you want, and people tell you that you can do anything you put your mind to. Everyone thinks that they’re going to be an astronaut or an athlete or something like that. I think I lot of people just come to realize at this age that, yeah, the dream is over. Just because everything isn’t perfect doesn’t mean that everything sucks. There are a million other amazing life experiences that you can have. There’s definitely a lot of positivity on the record, trying to accept the fact that maybe things aren’t exactly as you hoped they would be, but trying to find the things that are good about life, and trying to hold onto them for dear life, and build your future around those things.”
PUP doesn’t do encores. They’re not ones for leaving the stage only to come back to play another song. Every time they end a show, they end them with the first two tracks off of this record. The band began touring after their first album and ended up doing over 250 shows in a year. With all of that time cooped up in a van, sleeping on floors, and eating every meal together, you learn a lot about another person. The four-piece are like brothers, they love each other, but every now and then you want to kill them. You know just how to piss them off, and how to cheer them up. To quote Babcock in an interview with Riffyou “Contrary to what the lyrics might imply, it really seems to us like the ultimate celebration of friendship”. “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will” starts very slow and continues to build up and up until Babcock explodes with the words “I’M ON IT!!!”. If you haven’t heard a PUP song before, you can easily tell that Babcock would have destroyed his vocals here if he wasn’t careful. It’s an incredible representation of what you can expect from the band, loud punk rock guitars, fast-paced drums, and screeching vocals.
The band’s most popular song, one of the most iconic music videos of all time, and the lead single off of this record, “DVP” is how the band closes out every show. With “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will” bleeding into it, “DVP” is loud, fast, and funny. Everything about this track is perfect, the drums are tight, the guitars make you wonder how anyone can strum that fast, the vocalizations are amazing, and Babcock’s vocals are in your face. “DVP” stands for “Don Valley Parkway” which is a highway that runs through the band’s hometown of Toronto. The song itself is about the singer talking to his (ex?) girlfriend’s sister and complaining to her about how much life sucks despite her not caring about how their relationship is going.
At one point or another, every song on this album has gotten stuck in my head. “Doubts” is one of those songs that has such a good chorus that you listen to the song over and over again for it, but then realize that the entire song is just so much more. The lyrics on this one tell the story of not being able to let go of the past. How every decision you make, you second-guess yourself and wonder if you made the right choice. The bridge and outro of this song are just incredible. The instrumentation is once again incredibly solid, but the vocals are the star of the show here.
“Sleep In The Heat” is the most heartbreaking song PUP has ever written. During the filming of the music video for “Mabu”, the band rented some turtles, fish, and even a chameleon. After saying goodbye to his old car, Babcock fell in love with the chameleon and took her home. Babcock named her Norman and cared for her as best he could. After a while, Norman got sick with a tongue infection and had to get it amputated. The surgery itself cost everything Babcock had in the bank, but he went through with it as he loved her. Unfortunately, because chameleons need their tongues to eat and drink, Norman was unable to properly have food or water and ended up passing away. The music video for this one hits so hard and stars Finn Wolfhard of “Stranger Things” fame. If you need a good cry in 4 minutes or less, this video will do just that.
Keeping the depressing trend going, but based on a children’s story, “The Coast” slows things down a bit and is inspired by the story of “A Promise Is A Promise”, a story that Babcock’s parents read him as a kid. It’s a terrifying story for kids about keeping promises and Qallupilluit, an Inuit mythological sea troll. The song describes a girl going out to a lake in the spring to fish, but she ends up falling into the lake and is only discovered in the summer. The song has an explosive chorus and a wicked guitar solo, but it’s nice hearing the band explore some light storytelling and not shredding screams all the time.
One of the more metal-sounding songs on this record is “Old Wounds”. With Babcock’s strained vocals, and the band’s loud and in-your-face drums and guitars, this track is all about someone trying to fix the singer up, digging up old wounds in order to try and help them out despite the singer not wanting anything to do with them anymore. This song feels very sludgy compared to all of the others on the record, and that’s not a bad thing at all. The music video for this one is super cool as well, as the band went and made their own “video game” in a way.
The morbidly titled “My Life Is Over and I Couldn’t Be Happier” is a self-deprecating song about a relationship falling apart. While arguments fly, the band just has a lot of fun on this track. It’s a silly song and there isn’t much to it.
“Can’t Win” is a song revolving around the feeling that you can do more with your life. Wanting to be more, and accomplish something worthwhile is something aspire to do every now and then. Once again, the instrumentation here is stellar, and I’ve said as much as I can about it on this record.
The song that made me want to write this review, “Familiar Patterns”, is up next and Babcock’s inflection on the lyrics here is some of the catchiest on the album. The song starts out with some incredible guitar and drums. Once the bass guitar joins the mix, and the song erupts, you’re immediately filled with a rush of energy. You can feel the emotion that the band is pouring into this one. My favorite lyric here probably has to be in the chorus “So I spent a long time down in the basement / Instead of rollin’ with the riff-raff / ’Cause I know better / I know better than that”. It’s just a great set of lyrics and hearing the band sing along to it is amazing. This track is a bit of a follow-up to the previous and instead of being self-deprecating, the band takes a stance of embracing your issues.
Closing out the record is “Pine Point”, a song about a town that no longer exists. Pine Point was a mining town that was built in the 1960s and was officially incorporated as a town in 1974. On PUP’s self-titled album, the closing song “Yukon” is about a trip that Babcock took with his sister. On the ride home, they stumbled across a sign for the town Pine Point. The only thing that remained in the town was the graveyard. The concept of a town not being there anymore really stuck with Babcock and was the inspiration for this song. Heavily influenced by the web documentary “Welcome to Pine Point”, the song tells the tale of “Pine Pointers”.
Final Thoughts
“The Dream Is Over” is loud, in your face, self-deprecating, and inspiring. PUP isn’t one to shy away from harsh topics, and the only way to express such raw emotion is with cathartic punk rock music.
Album Score: 9/10
Favorite Tracks: “DVP, Doubts, Sleep In The Heat, Familiar Patterns”
References:
DIY: PUP TALK THEIR “ROWDY, NOISY CLUSTERFUCK” OF A NEW ALBUM, ‘THE DREAM IS OVER’
Junkee: PUP’s track by track guide to their new album ‘The Dream Is Over’
VICE: Why Can’t We Just Get Along?: The Two Years That Almost Killed PUP
