Music often reminisces about being young; young love, hot summers, first kisses and growing pains. Writers do it, artists do it, everyone remakes their youth to some extent as they get older. Not many teenagers out there are shrewd enough to document it as it happens and create something that makes you think, “Yes , that’s it.” It’s not from generic lines that we could all feel in some way, it’s from specific tales that you may not have been through, but you can sense the spirit.
BE YOUR OWN PET were not bad at all on their first outing. They did solid punk songs that were sometimes catchy, but over the course of their self-titled debut, many tracks merged into the others and they were just a good band. They’re back, though, and ‘Get Awkward’ is an album that shows they have improved a lot, but – and this is a plus – they haven’t grown up either. They now sound like a firmly deflowered version of Operator Please.
The first track ‘Super Soaked’ is very much a mission statement for the album. It’s a loud, ferocious pop punk number, very much a tantrum, all spiky, angry, but more well rounded than they used to be. It hammers along and the snotty nosed vocals from lead singer Jemima Pearl just sum it all up; “I don’t want to grow up and have to let go. I don’t want the pressure to change my ways, all I see are more dark days.” Like a very angry Strokes with a vitriolic young woman at the helm.
The best moments of the album are almost first-person short-stories. ‘Becky’ sounds like a very dark version of ‘The Locomotion.’ It’s a tale of school best friends moving on and falling out, eventually resulting in a knifing and I incarceration. The subtle wit running through the lines makes this not only catchy, but really very clever.
“That doesn’t matter any way, ‘cos I’ve got a brand new friend okay, me and her we’ll kick your ass, we’ll wait with knives after class.” It’s a whole story told in under three minutes.
‘You’re a Waste’ is an open letter from a wronged woman. It’s an honest outpouring of spite, again told in a unique way that remains almost universally tangible. It’s more of an indie-rock song – all of the broken hearted songs on here are. ‘Heart Throb’ is the manifestation of the torture caused by falling for someone who’s attached, when you’re attached yourself. It’s all about how unfair the world is (imagine Kevin the teenager from Harry Enfield with the power of the Tazmanian Devil).
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The mood is conveyed well from song to song. ‘Food Fight’ is sheer fun, as it meant to be – just about being young and pissing about. It’s a very aggressive cheerleader, and one of the louder, shoutier moments on the album. It makes you want to join them in chucking the mustard about. ‘Bummer Time’ is plain silly, a clipped, chaotic song that somehow remains tuneful – perhaps not one to release as a single in this country due to the connotations of the title – but it’s the sort of stuff people come out with they’re just having mindless fun together.
The language is both child-like and astute at the same time. Most of it comes to us in a stream of consciousness so skilled and honest, it makes the rhyming appear almost incidental. If this album doesn’t make you laugh at least six times on the first listen, then you should really check for a pulse. It’s a really accurate depiction of how it feels to be young and dealing with the nuances of the adult world. At the same time it celebrates making mistakes and having fun, alongside the angst of not fitting in and defining yourself by the people you hate. It’s a varied album, both musically and lyrically, and covers more ground in thirty-five minutes than the Kaiser Chiefs will in twenty years (God, forbid).
So they’ve got louder, they’ve become more coherent, and lost none of their spark. Be Your Own Pet have grown up and not grown up at the same time with this album. I would love to be young enough to be in a mosh pit throwing myself around to Be Your Own Pet circa 2008, but at the ripe old age of twenty-five, I think they’d rightly ask me to leave. It won’t stop me appreciating from afar though – for this album is quite simply brilliant.
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