Toronto punk act Pup will return in 2025 with their new album Who Will Look After the Dogs?, their first LP in three years.
Ahead of the album’s release on May 2, the foursome have shared the first single “Hallways,” which singer Stefan Babcock penned in the immediate aftermath of their last LP.
“Within days of announcing our last album, coincidentally titled The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND, my life unexpectedly imploded. I wrote the lyrics for ‘Hallways’ while all that was going on. It was a weird fucking week,” Babcock said in a statement.
“The title of our new record, Who Will Look After The Dogs?, is what I wrote at the top of the page, the very first thing written for this album. I think it’s devastating, but in a ‘holy shit this is overdramatic’ kinda way. At least in context of the line that comes before it. That’s what makes it funny to us. That overblown stuff we all say in our dark moments can be hilarious once you’ve cooled off a bit. I don’t know if anyone else thinks it’s funny, but sometimes you gotta laugh at yourself. It’s the only way out of the abyss. Trust me.”
Who Will Look After the Dogs?, produced by John Congleton, was recorded in Los Angeles in just three weeks time, nearly half as long as it took Pup to record their recent LPs. For the new album, the band took a back-to-basics approach. “We realized it should be four people in a room playing,” bassist Nestor Chumak added. “The most important thing was trying to do the most with just us.”
Babcock’s self-reflective lyrics were mostly penned in isolation as his bandmates got married, had kids, or moved away. “When I first started writing the lyrics for this record, everything felt really heavy,” Babcock said, adding that he wrote 30 songs for the album before wilting it down to a dozen tracks. “By the time we recorded it, even those dark songs felt light and fun. We didn’t even really fight while making this record. It all just felt fucking awesome.”
Who Will Look After the Dogs? is available to preorder now via Little Dipper/Rise Records.
Who Will Look After the Dogs? Track List
1. “No Hope”
2. “Olive Garden”
3. “Concrete”
4. “Get Dumber”
5. “Hunger for Death”
6. “Needed to Hear It”
7. “Paranoid”
8. “Falling Outta Love”
9. “Hallways”
10. “Cruel”
11. “Best Revenge”
12. “Shut Up”
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