PUP: Anaphylaxis
This swell new track from the Toronto punk faves features ferocious fretting and adrenalized vocals.
By Kerry Doole
PUP- Anaphylaxis ( Little Dipper/UMC): The Toronto punk heroes had a banner year in 2019, earning rave reviews for its third album, Morbid Stuff, and winning more fans with a nine months-long international tour.
Now the band returns with Anaphylaxis, its first new material of 2020, accompanied by a claymation video directed by Callum Scott-Dyson. PUP has long attracted attention (and multiple Prism Prize nominations, including two this year) for its inventive clips, and this one is no exception.
The track itself features ferocious fretting and Stefan Babcock's signature adrenalized vocals, yet is also appealingly catchy.
Lyricist Babcock describes the cut in a label press release, noting that “I got the idea for the song when I was at my partner’s cottage and her cousin got stung by a bee and his whole head started to swell up. His wife, although she was concerned, also thought it was pretty hilarious and started making fun of him even as they were headed to the hospital.
"He ended up being totally fine, but it was just funny to watch him freaking out and her just lighting him up at the same time. It reminded me of all the times I’ve started panicking for whatever reason and was convinced I was dying and the world was ending and no one would take me seriously. In retrospect, I always find those overreactions pretty funny. So we wrote a goofy song about being a hypochondriac and tried to make our guitars sound like bees at the beginning of it.”
The elements of hypochondria and manic paranoia in the track feel topical right now.
Links
PR: Ken Beattie, Killbeat
