One-Album Wonders: Unruly Dogs

"I'm a lost dog, running 'round the park, 'cause I really wanna see you again"

Genres: pop rock, indie
Recording decades: 2010s

Known personnel:
Andy Burns

Album release year: 2012

Rating: 8/10

Track Listing: 1) Prologue; 2) Big City Lips; 3) Lost Dog; 4) Sweaty Wiv You; 5) I'll Bite You; 6) Freaky Weather; 7) Small Faces; 8) I Am What I Am; 9) Walking the Dog.

Oh wow, 2012 and there's not a drum machine in sight (or maybe there is and I just can't hear it), which means this album was doomed from the beginning.  I say this half-jokingly, but Unruly Dogs seem to be plenty clever in their single half-pop, half-rock release.  The impressive variety of these eight songs (plus the short "Prologue") ensures the listener is never bored.  The guys drift from straight-ahead pop rock ("Big City Lips") to mid-tempo dance pop ("Small Faces") to mellow contemporary ("Walking the Dog") to even electronic-turned-salsa ("Sweaty Wiv You").  Sure, you won't expect to see any of these songs on a "best of" list, but just because they're not earth-shattering in any sense, doesn't mean they don't still make for a great listening experience.  

On top of the variety, the continuous dog metaphors throughout keep things interesting and give the album a healthy dose of humor.  That theme sure gives the lyrics a greater resonance: case in point with the Track 5 chorus: "I like you / I like you / But I'll bite you / If you liiieee tooo meeee", for instance-- or Track 8's assertion that "I might be growing up / But I'm still the same pup!".  Yes, silly little touches like this are, indeed, enough to make me forgive track 7 for the laughable declaration that the Small Faces invented the concept album (I assume they mean Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, which I'm struggling to restrain my thoughts on at the moment).

Regardless, this is a smartly humorous album of freely-enjoyable indie pop rock, all the better for its compactness, and it shows a band willing to put in the time to balance out the work.  Count me as an Unruly Dogs fan, but we have yet to hear more from these guys, which is a real shame.