On Feb. 7, indie band Sarah and the Sundays released their third album, Like a Damn Dog.
Each song’s lyrics are beautifully written, intimate and personal. If you’re not a fan of unpolished vocals and an occasional cacophonous shoegaze-style instrumentals, you won’t love this album.
I’ve debriefed each track below, and ranked them by preference.
“The Cue“
The album starts with “The Cue,” my favorite track. The song discusses the regret that comes with letting a relationship go on longer than it needs to. The concept is universally relatable.
The buildup to the final chorus is balanced. It’s mixed so the cymbals aren’t too overpowering. For a band with under 500,000 listeners on Spotify, the production quality is remarkably good.
The bridge’s background vocals, specifically on the lyric “like a vulture in the snow,” are amazing. The vocals on “I’m embarrassed, mortified” are also spectacular, and reminiscent of Pinegrove’s Audiotree Live Version of “Angelina.”
Best Lyric: “Still, I think I deserved a kinder goodbye.” This lyric’s writing isn’t the best, but it’s such a common sentiment of feeling like a relationship ended unfairly. Additionally, I love songs with flowery language, so points for throwing the word “asinine” in.
“Skin and Bone“
This is my second favorite single. The song’s titled after a lyric in a verse: “I’m sick of being just skin and bone.” It ties strongly to the song’s overarching topic.
The distinctive electric guitar and bass shine here. They leave enough beats without vocals for the instrumentals’ quality to soak in. It’s comparable to Briston Maroney with Pinegrove vocals.
Best lyrics: “I don’t know where to start / but I need to.” This is one of the album’s most optimistic songs. The lyrics, however, aren’t as strong as others.
“Pipe Down“
From the intro, you know it’s high energy and fun. The melody of the verses is predictable, but catchy.
At this point in the album, I realized that I adore the lead singer’s voice. I enlisted the help of my friend, Communication second year Ellie Caro, to find the words to describe it. The words that came in were “breathy” in the falsetto, with a “little vocal fry” on some of the end notes. In layman’s terms, I described it as a whiny combination of Del Water Gap’s Samuel Holden Jaffe and Pinegrove’s Evan Hall.
Best lyric: “It’s not like I’m swimming in options/I’m stuck on the shore.” It plays with figurative language and ties it together to create a cohesive statement on the album’s themes.
“Looking Dead at the Function“
Great songs often come with ridiculous titles. This one’s another “scream in your room” track.
The vocals feel intimate, as it’s mixed to sound like it’s right in your ear. The melody integrates lead vocalist Liam Yorgensen’s full range, especially between chest and head voice, with the line “I mean soon as I wake up” in the first verse showcasing it best.
The most interesting part of the instrumentals is the seamless transition from “Crystal Ball.”
Best lyric: “I’d love to know why it seems like I’m doing it all to myself.” A lot of these lyrics are about searching for answers in order to feel better about your self-image. It fits seamlessly into the rest of the puzzle that this album forms.
“Afterlife“
This song marks the first time Yorgensen dips into both a falsetto and deep gravely notes in the album. The low notes caught me off guard, but they still work with the song.
The song does get boring. It’s just a tearjerker that follows classic rock traditions.
Best lyric: “If grief is a part of love, then I’ll love no more.” This lyric is excruciatingly emotional, touching on the repeated themes of grief and the emotional pain of love and living. This is where they put the “emo” in “midwest emo.”
“Casanova“
Casanova discusses the fickle nature of self-perception. They contrast the topic with a fun and complex strumming pattern.
The electric guitar feels more pop-oriented than the other tracks. The bass carries the song, and you can hear it from the first verse. The instrumentals at the end emphasize the band’s musical talent. They are known for writing all of their own music, along with producer David Greenbaum. The instrumentals aren’t entirely clean. You hear the fingers sliding up the strings of the guitar, giving the track a cozy and indie feel.
Lyrically, it’s not the best. The rhyming feels a little lazy at times.
Best lyric: “And in my head, I’m totally the person I should be.” While not the most complex, it’s an interesting contrast in the context of the album, which discusses low self-esteem and distorted self-perceptions.
“You Must Be Tired“
This song is vocally inconsistent – some I really don’t like, and some I love. In the chorus, Yorgensen ends the word “recall” beautifully, with vocal fry and character. The vocals get better as the song progresses, with the second verse having interesting vocal layers. On the line “just get gone,” I caught a slight belt and knew the ending chorus would be good.
The instrumentals peak at the end when the drums and guitar build up the angriest lyrics of the song.
Lyrically, this one was great, which was why I was disappointed that the beginning vocals didn’t match the writing’s quality.
Best lyric: “You must be tired of me shaking like a dog.” This is likely a reference to the name of the album. I appreciate the use of figurative language. It continues on the theme of self-perception. They didn’t say, “You’re tired of me shaking like a dog.” The word must changes everything. It turns what would be a line about conflict in relationships into a line about projecting your anxieties about your anxiety onto someone else. It’s careful and intentional.
“Policy“
The band warned that this would be one of the saddest songs on the album. In an Instagram post, they wrote, “p.s. you may wanna stock up on antidepressants for this one.”
Best lyric: “Kind of look in your eye like there’s something repulsive that’s waiting inside.” It reminds me of Searow’s House Song and the line “something is rotten inside me.” The raw self-loathing in this album is palpable. They also sprinkle in some good vocabulary with the word “edify” later.
“Crystal Ball“
Here, the gorgeously painful lyrics are the focus. They use second-person perspective, figures of speech and metaphors to convey tone and emotion viscerally.
The vocals match the lyrics’ quality. Yorgensen incorporates low notes so well on the word “traffic” in the chorus, and the gravelly tone of it works for the song, even if it’s not a characteristic many would enjoy.
The chord progression on the acoustic guitar is so simple that it lends itself to a focus on the vocals and the lyrics. The highlight is the end, when the drums contribute to the emotional climax of the song, and an ending lyric that serves as a miserable cry for help.
Best lyric: “Did you really think I’d settle all my scores?” It’s not the most emotional, but it is so characteristic of their writing, with a subtle figure of speech used to convey sadness.
“Sweet Tooth“
This experimental track has a bit more of a folk sound to it and an outro similar to Phoebe Bridgers’ “I Know The End” with the bass drum and tambourine.
In the first verse, there are some background vocals that sound like Noah Kahan, which fits the folk-ish style of the song. Yorgensen brings in the vocal fry again on the words “was” and “run.” His vocals are unpredictable, keeping the listener on their toes.
Lyrically, this one’s pretty painful.
Best lyric(s): There is simply no “best” lyric in this song. “I still hate my hometown for no reason” is the funniest on the album. It’s a little self-deprecatory, referencing a well-known trope.The parallel lyrics “I wanna love like my mother does” and “I wanna live like my brother does” carry intense emotional weight.
“Cease“
In this song, they disregard the concept of rhyming lyrics. It’s refreshing.
It doesn’t highlight Yergensen’s vocal range. Clean vocals are sacrificed for emotional impact towards the end, in typical Midwest emo fashion.
The toms and the cymbals carry in this song. Out of all the songs off the album, this one would be the most fun to see live, just to see the band’s energy.
Best lyric: “I’m not the prophet I wanna be.” The lyrics contrast our dreams with where we currently stand— a distance which is occasionally wider than we hope.
“Ignore Me“
As the only track with piano, it has a completely different sound, but it is monotonous. At around three minutes in, they bring up the volume on the piano and go double time on the drums, breaking up some of the monotony.
It’s a fitting way to end the album, though it’s my least favorite. The tone of it encompasses the album’s themes of feeling failure.
Best lyric: “Have the walls been telling you scary stories too?” I love the figurative language. It feels personal, like I’m eavesdropping on an intimate conversation he’s having with someone.
