Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet

The people who critisise Be Your Own Pet’s debut album will probably be the same ones who try to tell you that ‘Show Your Bones’ isn’t very good, and really, we shouldn’t be paying attention to anyone but those Arctic Monkeys. After all, they have a website and are revolutionising music (etc etc - Barely Awake Ed). Such broadsheet single mindedness doesn’t quite work when dealing with Nashville’s youngest sonic terrorists, however.

The prime accusation that’s been leveled in Jemina and co’s direction seems to be their age. We live in a world where people really should be older than their years, apparently, and while the relative youth of Sheffield’s biggest musical export is to be acclaimed, Be Your Own Pet are obviously quite simplistic because they’re not old enough to know better, and they really should do something about that; get some fake ID or something. Yes, the argument is as stupid as it sounds.

There’s a point being missed. The beauty of Be Your Own Pet always has been the raw, basic nature of their songs. Despite being as complicated as The Sun crossword, they’re still flaming arrows straight into the conciousness of your average indie kid, something that even the revived Morrissey can’t achieve quite as well as he thinks.

No, fifteen songs in thirty three minutes is a good thing. There’s no room for filler, depressing ballads and unfounded Courtney Love comparisons. Instead we get proper pop gold in the shape of ‘We Will Vacation’ and ‘You Can Be My Parasol’, packed with clever lyrics and all out guitar action. Everything turned up on full and no room for delicacy, it’s less a mess, more musical hormones taken off the leash. ‘Adventure’ is the kind of track that nine out of ten bands would kill to have, and even a not-actually-a-Led-Zeppelin-cover ‘Stairway to Heaven’ achieves the unlikely tag of a Be Your Own Pet grower.

There’s room for improvement, but the fact a band so young have released an album that demands attention is a good thing. While most would be playing Green Day covers in their school hall, Be Your Own Pet are performing their own stuff to the world. Plus, it’s bloody good fun.