Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Life is not and should never be, completely serious. Even in the depths of the most intense feeling surrounding the soul or the art that engulfs us, there must be moments in which raising a smile, beaming and wide grin and letting the two fingers of angry pleasure and satisfaction be seen to rise above the cacophony of ceaseless prattle and bustle. The difference between these two states of mind are understood when you know that it is appropriate to act The Goat and to shoulder the responsibility in to which you showcase the passion in which your soul deserves.
A debut album must always find ways in which to stir the commotion within the listener’s mind, you don’t get to be part of a subsequent world of constant recording unless you do something pretty cool, adventurous or even beautiful if you back down and become domesticated by the system, if you cannot prendre sa chevre, steal someone else’s milk or followers, then you cannot reach the height that stares at you, inviting you to reach out and hold for a while the prize you seek.
There will always be the insistence that everybody eventually starts to sound similar, that the connections between the music is after all only as constricted as the amount of notes and patterns that are available to be played; whilst there is a crossover to be found, the odd stirring chord reminding of you of other times, it is the deportment in which the sequence and the attitude in which it is played that makes all the difference in the world.
In Puppy’s debut album, The Goat, that sense of experiment and swagger, of fusing the memories of the big four of Thrash and the insistence of bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, combine and coalesce the ambition of what was once kids hoping for a shot at the title, but now are grown adults with the wherewithal to beat the sound of conformity.
In tracks such as Vengeance, Poor Me, And So I Burn, World Stands Still and I Feel An Evil, Billy Howard, Jock Norton and Will Michael find the necessary catch-all melody and revel in it, assured that they will not fold under the pressure of expectation in their debut and be put out to grass like so many who have gone before them.
Exhilarating, timely and full of promise, Puppy is the animal you didn’t you would crave.
Puppy release their debut album, The Goat, via Spinefarm Records on January 25th.
Ian D. Hall