Review: "Lullabies for Dogs" by Chase Petra released via Wax Bodega
In 2019 Chase Petra released Liminal, a calm yet direct emo folk record about the first steps of facing yourself. You wouldn’t really feel the gap, however, in the six years since the trio (Hunter Allen, Evan Schaid, Brooke Dickson) has released several singles and three EPs, one of which features new versions of three songs from the debut. While this new record, Lullabies for Dogs, is the debut, it’s the results of six years of growth and development of the band’s current sound.
My first experience with lead single “Centrifugal Force” was, in fact, a puzzling one as I had failed to consider how much Chase Petra had been through. With all those releases, as well as an extensive touring schedule, expecting this band to be one step ahead, not ten, was probably on me. At the bottom line this is a Chase Petra song, it has the same sense of rhythm and atmosphere they’ve always incorporated. It’s a bit bolder, a lot more refined, but it is a logical step on the timeline.
“A Bug’s Life” followed and on paper made a lot more sense as a single. This is more standard folk pop with a teeny bit of string accompaniment and in a vacuum doesn’t show you this as the record’s cool down track. “Have Faith, Horatio” comes at a point in the album where it feels like a wake up call. The songs preceding it being gigantic and mystical only to take a detour into some mild emo. Granted, it has some of the grander project’s theatrics and even plays into the themes of cynicism in a spiritual way, but it is the safer song. As a listener I can be pretty apathetic toward singles, in the case of Lullabies for Dogs, hearing these three songs before the record was a different experience than seeing them as part of the grander picture. “Centrifugal Force” was the trump card we didn’t understand yet, “Bug’s Life” was the safe bet to the established fans and “Horatio” was the safe bet for everyone else. Forcing me to eat my words, sometimes the singles are a part of the point.
Reading the lyrics on the first track alone, we see clearly this evolution wasn’t just in sound. Here Hunter talks about the weight of success and not considering the changes said success would bring. She even references a song from the first record, “Laws of Physics,” not only in name, the entire piece of written word here directly addresses the optimistic and younger writer of the first song. This isn’t just a response to your old self, it’s accepting you grew even more cynical than you could have foreseen. On this album’s second track, the more mellow “Catharsis,” sees her accept its painful to be anywhere. Hunter asks herself; if it isn’t sustainable and it’s thankless, why do it at all?
Catharsis, regardless
You can’t miss all of this
Plain sadness
“Catharsis” also expands upon the sound of last year’s Petrichor EP. More than just acoustic renditions of songs from the first record and EP, this project saw Chase Petra’s catalogue reimagined for a more immersive and theatrical sound. Backing vocals would come from all around you as if they were members of the audience and it felt like you were being sung to as opposed to at. On this song it feels like a film, the atmosphere shifting and zooming at every new line. Even when it's solely a capella it’s brief enough as if to let you know you aren’t ever getting the whole picture up close. Similarly, this is only one still of this side of the band as a whole. “Icarus” is a shorter, re-ushering in moment. In it consequence is mulled on again by asking the audience to reconsider a narrator who trusts a man who made wings of wax to begin with.
“Because I am My Own Dog” is far and away my personal favorite here. On which there are bigger instruments including live horns over the trio’s minimalistic foundation. For a band who covered “I Write Sins…” and have jokingly referred to themselves as unbroken-up Panic! At the Disco, this is also another logical part of the timeline. It plays like an artist who grew up listening to A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out all the way to Vices & Virtues as gospel. For a break-up song “Dog” is really optimistic and contrasts nicely to the sad love-affair story found on “Two Nights in Boston.”
This sound is also found on “The Needle,” which expands on the sonics of 2023’s “Reliable Narrator” and “Soapy Water” singles. A lot of this band’s music is fun, it’s not too often they write a more traditional alternative song. Even still, the bridge here is undeniably of a sort with the rest of the songs on the record. It’s another demonstration of the art of restraint, the quieter the song, the louder the idea behind it. “The Suture” keeps the momentum going and shows even with this restraint in place, they can play fast. This pair starts to wind down Lullabies key thesis and shows another internal mirror of a soul rotting away alone to have allowed themselves to feel the sun’s rays on their skin.
The final two tracks here serve as a showcase of what it means to master everything demonstrated during the entire performance. “IWYTWT” is fun, fast and holds true to the theater kid spirit after deliberately cooling down from it. “Hospital Bills & Scratchers” is a true stage exit, pulling you back in for one final encore. Everything the band has learned about atmosphere and creating a larger than life song comes together here. If you weren’t caught up in the feeling of it all by the piano structure and strings alone you will be once any word registers from its lyrics. Here the question of the “why” is embraced; do it if you love doing it. Being constantly on the road and trying to make a living as a musician isn’t easy, nor is having to constantly be perceived in cities you’re getting to know. You do it for the same reason you do anything; because you love it.
I’ve said it a lot, but here it is again, reviews have slowed down. This is by design, as I attempt to work on projects which leave some semblance of my own voice behind in this world. To write this review I went back to my old ways, I listened to it so much, I sat down and took notes over three very distinct listens. All to make sure I understood the point of what was being said. I believe at this point I do, life is painful, you can always find the bleak in the mundane. If I or you or these three musicians are to do anything while we’re here, we better make it count.
Can you hear me?
I’m not done singing or screaming,
I’m not.
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