PUP’s “B-sides from ‘The Unraveling’” [Review]

It’s been about a month since I last talked about one of my favorite bands, PUP, so let’s change that today by talking about their latest EP “How To Live With Yourself / Smoke Screen / Kill Something” which we’ll lovingly refer to as “B-sides from ‘The Unraveling’”. The EP was released on June 7th, 2023.

Tracks off of this EP are ones that didn’t make the cut to be on “THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND”. It’s kind of unfortunate that these didn’t end up on there, but I’m very glad that they got released.

There are only three tracks on this EP, so it’s rather short, but a welcome addition to the amazing collection of PUP songs. Starting off is “How To Live With Yourself”, which was the first song the be written when they started working on “THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND”. According to lead singer, Stefan Babcock, the band wanted to start off by writing “something simple and fun”. With the upbeat guitars, and lyrics discussing a relationship that’s gone toxic, it’s a song that feels right at home in the band’s discography.

To contrast the previous song “Smoke Screen” is not like anything else from the band’s back catalog. The song is a bit slower in tempo and has a killer bass. The band’s bassist, Nestor Chumak, had thrown the riff around leading Babcock to think that the file was exported wrong. Chumak wanted to do something a bit “sludgier” and this song is the result of that. It’s rather short, but the guitars on this are so good and I do wish this got released on “THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND”.

Ending things off is a song that came out with the lead single from “THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND”, “Kill Something”. This track was released in November of 2021 and had many people surprised when it didn’t release with the album. With incredibly distorted guitars, it does feel a bit out of place if it were to be on the record. Funny enough, this song is about Babcock’s dog, Moose, who “loves to destroy his favorite things, and then gets sad when they’re destroyed.”.

Final thoughts

“B-sides from ‘The Unraveling’” is a lovely addition to PUP’s discography while they didn’t make the cut for “THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND”, I do hope that they do get a physical release one of these days.

Album Score: 8/10

Favorite Track: “Smoke Screen”

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