Album Review: Puppy - The Goat

It isn't too often you get to hear a rock band that is unashamed of being influenced by pop music, or what used to be considered pop music even though it was actually rock. Ghost is the one that comes to mind right now, considering that "Prequelle" ruled 2018 as a record that leaned hard into their love of pop. It's a situation that partly explains why people keep saying rock music is dead. Of course it will sound that way, when the mainstream (which we are all subject to, even if unintentionally) can find nothing about it to grab onto. If you make niche music, it will be treated as such. That shouldn't be a surprise.

That brings us to Puppy, who state multiple times in the press materials that come with their debut record that among other groups to influence them are Weezer. I'm assuming they mean the brief window when Weezer was actually good, so I won't hold their current status against Puppy. And yes, there is definitely a through-line between the two. Puppy, like Weezer was once, is a guitar heavy power pop band at heart. Puppy, however, is heavier and more keen on actually being a rock band than Weezer was. While they sang about having a KISS poster on the wall of the garage, Puppy actually sounds like they've listened to the great old hard rock bands (no, I don't include KISS as one of them).

Going back to my introduction, I find Ghost to be a solid place to start talking about Puppy. The sound of "The Goat" is one that isn't far removed from "Prequelle", if you removed the overt 80s influences from the latter. They both have nods to power pop, dreamy backing vocals, and a focus on adding riffs to the mix. Add in the fact that Puppy features vocals that similarly come from a nasal-tinged singer who might otherwise be considered weak, and we almost have a situation where Puppy is the 90s alternative version of "Prequelle". I find that rather interesting.

A song like "Poor Me" is a good example of how Puppy can catch us off-guard. The song opens with a riff that borrows from the doomy Sabbath playbook, and yet the chorus is pure mid 90s college radio rock. It's the moment on the record that most readily reminds me of "The Blue Album", and it's a sound I haven't heard in ages. I can't think of any bands at the moment who are doing this. There are plenty of power-pop bands, but they either are heavy as a feather, or they have taken the Jack White school (which is to claim anything that isn't pure blues worship is 'pop', when it isn't).

The band's sound is inviting, and dare I say 'warm'. There is something inherently pleasing about a band that offers fuzzy, crunchy guitars and smooth melodies as well. It doesn't hurt that it brings to mind a period of time when I was first getting into music. Like it or not, nostalgia works.

The problem, though, is the same one I have with much of the power-pop influenced music I come across. While it is melodic, it doesn't hook me. That is to say the songs are all lovely, but may not have the killer instinct the very best offers up. Whether you liked it or not, I would venture to say you remembered "Dance Macabre" the very first time you heard it. That's what the best songs are able to do, and as enjoyable as Puppy can be, I didn't get that impression from their songwriting. There isn't a song, or a few songs, that stand out as instantly unforgettable.

That means the album as a whole sounds more cohesive, with no obvious booms and busts. Over these dozen tracks, Puppy has delivered an album that gives us a take on rock that has been long absent. It's fun to hear this again, and as long as Puppy takes the right lessons from their influences, there's a lot of ground left to explore. "The Goat" may not live up to its title as an acronym, but it's a fun album that has plenty of charm.