Artist: Be Your Own Pet
Album: Get Awkward
Label: XL Recordings
Release: Now!
Sounds Like: An explosion in a pop-rocks and coke factory

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Album number 2 from Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet is an intense rush; so much so that it makes their self-titled debut seem like a wooden-wheeled Skoda. Those of you familiar with their output can expect 35 minutes of furiously fast punk rock shenanigans that will no doubt leave you with a racing pulse, shattered nerves and in desperate need of a cold glass of ale.

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Opening track ‘Super Soaked’ is a prime example of what to expect, hitting the listener hard with its high-speed guitars and thunderous drumbeats. It doesn’t let up from here. After vocalist Jemina Pearl’s scream of ‘look out world ‘cos I wanna have fun!’ it slams into ‘Black Hole’ with extreme gusto and Ramones-punk vigour. ‘Heart Throb’ tells of a tale of teenage lust, giving nods towards a distinctly 90’s pop-punk flavour of song-writing.

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They slow things down on ‘Becky’, a track which involves Jemina recounting a tale of a falling out between her and the protagonist (one that seems to end in the death of ‘Becky’ as the reference to “going to juvie for teenage homicide” and the singer feeling unremorseful, blaming Becky for the whole debacle.

Don’t expect any deep philosophical questions and theories to be raised in the next 11 tracks. They mostly concern things that Be Your Own Pet hold close to their hearts; i.e. partying, sex, food, relationships and erm”¦zombies?! Lyrically, it’s pretty immature, but who says punk rock has to be serious? Hey, Blink-182 made an entire career out of dick and fart jokes in their tracks so yammering on about ‘acting like a jerk’ and ‘popping pills’ is acceptable really. Plus, for them it would seem so out of character to create an album full of incredibly dull, piss-water indie rock wouldn’t it? I mean, growing up fucking sucks, so let’s have as much fun as possible! Tracks like the caustic frenzy of ‘Bitches Leave’ and the rabble-rousing chants of ‘Bummer Time’ are an excellent example of their spiky, uncompromising attitude.

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‘You’re a Waste’ dips its toe in the fountain of emo with its sombre overtones and Jemina’s blasé ‘I’m glad you’ve got a broken heart’ vocals. Any memory of this is blow out of the water by the noisy double-attack of the pizza-throwing pop anthem ‘Food Fight’ and the hammer-horror rock ‘n’ roll of ‘Zombie Graveyard Party!’– Easily one of the best tracks they’ve ever recorded.

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Those of you looking for an album that sounds like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing Ramones songs, ‘Get Awkward’ is an excellent and suitably bonkers place to start ”“ it will blow yr mind.

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Links

Be Your Own Pet
Be Your Own Myspace
XL Records
Infinity Cat

Lizard Hips

Junior Vice President of Keep It Fast. In other news: I work in social media, talk about dinosaurs, run a book club and have amazing facial hair. I am also a male man who is still not dead.

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