Be Your Own Pet - Mommy

How do you reignite a candle that burned twice as bright for half as long? For most of their brief, tumultuous time together in the late noughties, Be Your Own Pet were not old enough to legally drink in their native US and yet became held up as beacons of indie sleaze, their snarling, kicking, precocious punk a perfect soundtrack to the hedonism of an era that, in 2023, is being romanticised. After all, the group burned out first time around, collapsing under the pressure of living up to their own notoriety as hard partiers, as well as the often poisonous media attention centered on singer Jemina Pearl. As a band so wedded in the musical imagination of that era, where do they fit today? ‘Mommy’ answers that question in thematic terms as early as its second track, the deliciously witty ‘Goodtime!’, a tongue-in-cheek lament of FOMO on which Jemina reflects on her much-changed circumstances, quipping: “I can’t be that way no more, I got two kids and a mortgage!” The ferocious energy that defined Be Your Own Pet first time around, however, remains, as does their knack for a nagging earworm of a chorus. Searing hooks and soaring melodies channel through a frontwoman with limitless charisma; perhaps her standout moment here is on the furious ‘Big Trouble’, which is surely destined for anthem status. Be Your Own Pet have retained the vitality of their youth while leaving behind the baggage.