When musicians Nate Ruess and Sam Means were dropped by Elektra records at the tender age of 21, they must have thought it was all over. They had just given their latest demos to their label's A&R team, typically anxious and profit dependant, and been given a less than favourable response. These demos, of course, were not the sunny, bubblegum pop hit singles typical of the band that they had signed aged just 18; they were experimental, conceptual, Harry Nielsen, ELO and 70's pop inspired songs - radically experimental with instrumentation, with thick and self-specific narratives sugarcoated in lush synth lines, and swirling melodies. And those were only the demos - a meagre taste of the full-fledged concept album of loss, heartbreak and acceptance that it was to become. So what did they do next? Released it themselves. It was a chance - the chance only an artist who truly believes in what they were doing would take, and a decision that they will no doubt never regret.
Opening with "Matches", the album sets the scene. The narrator is dwelling in his home alone, feeling estranged from his other half; he sighs"You don't seem to tire, when i'm not around." Continuing the story, "I'm Actual" begins with an uninhibited plea for attention - "Can we please take this hour and talk about me?", delivered by Nate Ruess' naked voice unaccompanied, and building into a tense waltz complete with a string arrangement and leading accordion. A few tracks later and with the story unravelling, we have the mid-point of the album, the title-track "Dog Problems" where seemingly everything reaches a head. The frolicking horns pause for a moment mid-song, and Nate Ruess' vocal pierces the piano chords to softly sing some of the album's most gutwrenching lyrics -"Can you hear me, are you listening, this is the sound of my heart breaking. and I hope it's entertaining, because for me, it's a bitch." After this, suddenly, instruments move in, and the song builds with to a huge crescendo of orchestration that makes the end of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" sound like a whimper. From there, it's right back to business..
Continuing with "Oceans", one of the poppiest and most catchy tracks on the album, the narrator is mournful, yet aims to get his life back on track;"Why am I scared of people in a room? Why can't you see a good time, are the people close to you?" Later, "Snails", the name-sake of the album, is a slow ballad about the narrator's dog leaving home, musing about living life slowly and appreciating the small things. "The Compromise," which boosts energy levels, is an incisive critique into major label politics, and told through deliberately thinly veiled dancing metaphors and carries one of the best choruses on the album."Inches and Falling" returns to anguish with a desperate cry for any form of meaningful relationship over rollicking drums, stabbing horns and a chorus that cries for a gang vocal and loud singalong. After all of this, there is only one way to go, acceptance. Enter "If Work Permits". The perfect conclusion to the album, the narrator feels nostalgia over the sights and sounds of his empty home and the experiences he has had, expresses sailor metaphors and comes to the conclusion that he"Could use a warm kiss, instead of a cold goodbye". In the ultimate moment of catharsis which comes after the drastic change in dynamic, when he huge distorted guitars kick in; he thinks about his one time lover and shouts"If she seems as lonely as me, let her sink." Curtains close.
Released in 2007 Dog Problems is the indie-pop magnum opus that the Format overcame adversity to create. Brilliantly telling the tale of a failed romance, and creating an album that strangely sounds more like a west-end musical than most possibly any record in the pop-rock pantheon. Stylistically, there has never been anything quite like it, even the comparisons to instrumentation of ELO and noting the storytelling, theatrical delivery present won't touch the originality of the indie-rock infused post-modern musical that is the album. Breaking up shortly after the album's release, Nate and Sam have ensured that this will be their latest and greatest release together - a swan-song that will, as fate would have it, never be followed. Coming so far from their debut release on major label, this record is proof that a few years of maturation can change anything and everything. If there was ever a ringing endorsement for beauty and meaning in suffering, this album would be it.
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