The best pop-punk songs are abbreviated battles between sadness and joy, in which neither side ever wins. Sublime tension is the thing, and PUP understand this better than most. The Toronto band’s third album, Morbid Stuff, is a bummed trip through mid-20s frustration and malaise, but the drunken self-recriminations and lovesick kiss-offs are delivered with the sort of wide-eyed vim that can only be accessed in ecstatic states. Every song is a shout-along anthem of devastation and glee, resignation and resplendence. Are you fed up with your life but so stoked to even be alive? PUP is for you.

by Chris Stamm