Salient

Album Review - Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward

By Tom Baragwanath | 28 Apr, 2008

Get Awkward, the sophomore attempt from Nashville brats Be Your Own Pet, is a totally forgettable pop-punk foray into teenage disaffection, snooty high-school sass and over-the-top “fuck you Mum and Dad” bullshit. By the time these kids are old enough to legally drink, chances are that they’re going to be so, so embarrassed by this album.

From opener ‘Super Soaked’, you know you’re in for a horrible experience with this album. Excessively loud angular guitars strut their way onto the scene backed by predictable drum rhythms, and singer Jemina Pearl starts squawking about her parents, or not wanting to grow up, or something. “I won’t do what you tell me to”, she screams. That’s fine, Jemina, do whatever you like, but Christ, shut up about it.

This paint-by-numbers teenage pop-punk aesthetic provides a blueprint for the rest of the album. Overwhelmingly loud guitar noise saturates every song to the point of lunacy, with the only possible response from Pearl being to scream as if someone was threatening to block her access to Myspace. Drums and bass plod along, mostly unnoticed.

Most of this album sounds like a high school Sleater Kinney covers band trying to channel an ardent passion for Andrew WK. Some guitar hooks jump along nicely, but never enough to hold your interest for more than a few seconds, and certainly never enough to make up for Pearl’s horrendously insipid lyrics and desperately loud vocal delivery. For every chorus that repeats the word ‘party’ over and over like some sort of moronic mantra, another ounce of BYOP’s credibility is lost. Thankfully, most of the songs are short.

Get Awkward is aptly titled, for numerous reasons. How awkward is it that these pretty, vacuous merchants of hammed rebellion managed to make it onto Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label? How awkward is it that they’ve somehow managed to garner the affection of the international music press? Finally, how awkward is it going to be when these kids are reminded of this album in their mid-30s?