Fat Dog – Woof Review

The new rave noise of Fat Dog is here. Bark like the mutt you are for your next instalment of sweet sound. Woof. An energetic way to kick off your day. The weekend beckons and Fat Dog has a grandeur to its sound which benefits these small towns and big ideas. We may find the darkest hour overwhelming but the chances of falling for it when listening to debut effort Woof is unlikely. Fat Dog has been building to this, not unnoticed, but in the background as they piece together a wave of intense and well-written dance-punk. Fat Dog starts with a bang-on-perfect opener Vigilante. Their strength lies in the lyrical context, the unity we find in the horrible, late hours we put ourselves through. Follow it with a European-like house beat and here we have one of the better albums of this year. 

A punchy, proud and explosive imagery is utilised well. Woof is as bold as it is brash, but these are just words. Matter on the mind for an album trying to shake your brain awake. Fat Dog has an urgency to them which is lacking in the many genres they spill into, from the straight riffs of punk-like themes to the understanding of how sub-genres are mere tools for the creator. Closer to God gets it. Punk essentialism guides this release. Joe Love has the boldness and intensity for all these blurs to come together as a thoughtful and bold piece. Most of its messaging is the intensity surrounding death and experience without it, the reflective works heard on Wither are a fight against obscurity. Not of their band but of their family, the experiences of one do not match another but must be respected and loved. Wither is the beating heart of this Fat Dog debut, as bold as it gets and some soft ska saxophone works nicely with the vocal variety Love has.  

Woof relies on its blur of vocal intensity and an impressive array of instrumental joys. A beautiful blend of techno and punk, repeated for a half-hour as the band claws at a section of space in the cultural bubble. They just about pop it with this assured and heavy release. You can hear softer notions of the Serious Sam soundtrack influence Love has spoken of before, ever-so-slightly, in King of the Slugs. Their lead single and a bold one at that. Their klezmer influences too can be heard here, most obviously of all. But their layering on top of all this, the new sound they bring to the fold, is a mesmerising piece even if it feels disconnected from song to song.  

A familiarity turns into similarity for the latter half of this Fat Dog venture but a half-hour of powerful house-like music is a great experience. They know when to tone it down with the strings of I Am the King, which feels like another inevitability for the band to utilise their louder tone and brash image. It works. It works well. A self-confidence heard in this release helps greatly. Fat Dog has much to be confident about. Woof is an exceptional, fitting debut for the band roaring through their headline shows. Ties with Yard Act make sense. Here comes another blisteringly strong understanding of the world around us, though Fat Dog is a step removed. And So It Came to Pass reminds us, though, that the ideas present on Woof cannot die, it is too large a power, too important a message, to let it slip away.