Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet (XL)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Like hot oil fizzing and popping about an unattended frying pan, Be Your Own Pet always had more energy than was particularly healthy, and as such made for an entertaining if slightly unstable spectacle. Amidst the friendly fury of their live show and brisk rants of their preceding singles, what more there was to them other than such vigour wasn't immediately clear. 'Be Your Own Pet' needed to provide solid tunes, to throw some smoked bacon rashers in to that oil, to flesh out the skeleton that wouldn't stop launching itself around stage and song. Otherwise, chances are, removed from being able to gawk upon their four beautiful frames frantically thrashing out whatever piece of demented young punk they'd picked to play, far from being energetic, an album's worth of it could paradoxically become rather dull.
They go one better than that, sacrificing none of the chaos that was the only reason anyone's ears were open to their craft in the first place, but lo, give praise for the way they've developed in to cracking song writers! Listen to 'Adventure', its huge chorus threatening to jump in every ten seconds, 'We Will Vacation, You Will Be My Parasol' aping the same trick with even more speed, the whole record by this point barely halfway old and already starting run away with itself. The reason you want to follow? The melodies - those that keep the frantic pace whilst being as infectious as the speed of it all is
totally manic.
It's not as if in some dark night of the soul they'd deemed themselves far too mature for all this now and subsequently decided to quit messing about and go boring. They're still, comparatively, kids. Songs are called things like 'Fuuuuuun' and 'Bicycle Bicycle You Are My Bicycle' (both standouts, as it happens). Things are oft still shouted and yelped rather than delicately placed by dulcet tones as offerings to our earlobes. It's an absolute riot. But what unites it is that Be Your Own Pet are not only now just younger, louder and faster than everyone else, but for the most part, they've also got better tunes.
Artists in this article: Be Your Own Pet
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