It’s National Pet Day and The Pup Pups’ second album Variety Snaps is now here! Like I said, I truly never expected to make a second album of songs about dogs and cats, but here we are. And as is tradition for all my albums, that means it’s time for my mom’s review. The images of her handwritten review are up top and I’ve transcribed them below to make sense of them and try to add a little commentary (my notes are below each comment in italics). Hope you all enjoy the album!
- “What’re We Gonna Do Today?” – COUNTRY BEAT W/ MUPPETS LEAD
- Gina actually also said I sound like a muppet in an early version of the song so I kinda pulled back a little, but that’s also how I’m supposed to sound so all good
- “Back 2 My Old Tricks” – SOUNDS LIKE AN 80S ROCKER TRYING TO MAKE A COMEBACK
- She got this one right!
- “He’s Doin’ Great!” – SOUNDS LIKE A SONG ABOUT UR DAD – BUT NEVER DOES GREAT!!
- Yep! (Except it’s about Harvey and he IS doin’ great!)
- “Little Bad Wolf” – A METAL BALLAD?
- This one she got totally wrong but then again she’s probably never heard a Halloween song or Disney musical before
- “Chasing Shadows Again” – JOHNNY CASH ON SPEED
- She’s also never heard The Cure before, so I get it… and I guess “Johnny Cash on speed” is a good description of early The Cure, which this is supposed to sound like
- “The Blue Cat Blues” – ROCKABILLY W STRAY CATS
- Not really Rockabilly but sure, why not?
- “CLICK” – PUNKY / ROCKY HORROR COMBO
- I like this description
- “Can Can” – MOTOWN W/ JACKSON 5
- Yep. Although it’s also mainly supposed to be K-Pop but the closest I could get to K-Pop was imitating Jackon 5 (which is close to the same thing)
- “Instagram Model” – PEEWEE HERMAN INFLUENCE / DEVO
- No not really to either… But like with The Cure, I don’t think my mom has ever listened to a female pop artist before, so she wouldn’t catch the artists this is supposed to sound like
- “Mona Lisa Smile” – ED SHEERAN ROCKZ!
- Ehh… Fine. I guess.
- “Barko!” – SPRINGSTEEN LIVES SOUNDS LIKE WACKO WACKO
- I don’t know about Springsteen but I will say if I make another The Pup Pups album, there’s already two songs that sound like Springsteen I have in mind…
- “Grasshopper Invasion” – RASPBERRY BERET – NUFF SAID
- Good catch. I wasn’t thinking that but it’s kinda similar in melody. And Gina says “Mona Lisa Smile” is like Prince too.
- “Boys & Girls” – THE CHROMOSONE SONG NOT P.C.
- The whole point is it IS P.C. Mom. The singer of the song is just kind of an idiot who means well but doesn’t know anything. But it’s a celebration of LGBTQ identities within the world of pets.
- “Rainbow Bridge” – SURPRISINGLY UPLIFTING FOR SUCH A SAD SUBJECT – GREAT WORDS + TEMPO
- Thanks Mom
- “What’re We Gonna Do Today (Redux)” – NOPE
- She told me in advance she was not going to review the super extended bonus song and it’s basically the same as the first one so that’s fine.
Thanks as always for reviewing the new album Mom. Your comments are… something. To everyone else who listens, we’d love to hear YOUR thoughts on the album so please either email me, post on social media, maybe even a video of you and your pup pup’s reactions to the songs. I’d love to hear what you think of these songs.
You can buy the limited edition CD on Bandcamp at https://thepuppups.bandcamp.com and now you can stream it on all your favorite services like Spotify and Apple Music. Also be sure to add The Pup Pups songs to your silly dog and cat videos on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok reels and stories!
Tomorrow on the Piecing It Together Podcast there will be an album length commentary with me recounting stories behind the songs throughout the album. Check Piecing It Together out at https://www.piecingpod.com
And also thanks so much to my friend Chad Clinton Freeman for doing an album listening party on his Frida Night HaM Show Livestream on YouTube last week where me, Gina and whichever Pup Pups I could scrounge up were hanging out and listening to the album with a bunch of cool people. You can catch the replay along with a bunch of other great indie musicians at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbK3I4nLjGI&t=2s (this stream may or may not be accessible depending on whether CD Baby wants to cooperate with me telling them Chad didn’t steal my songs… the internet is stupid).
David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on the ABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.