Bowling For Soup – ‘Pop Drunk Snot Bread’ [Album Review]

During a recent gig on their UK tour, Jaret Reddick, vocalist with pop-punk rogues Bowling For Soup, joked “I never thought I’d be 50 still singing about High School, but here I am,” and that just about sums up everything about the band and their latest album Pop Drunk Snot Bread.

While never quite reaching the heady heights of some of their fellow pop-punk stars, Bowling For Soup has always been a band the rock scene has taken to the hearts. Now back with their eleventh studio album, thankfully not a lot has changed and, as the record kicks off with reflective “The Greatest Of All Time” with Reddick calling out “If we look back on the years, it’s easy to see where we fit in….” For me, it’s the sort of wonderful moment that sums up Bowling For Soup in one simple lyric and sets the tone for the rest of Pop Drunk Snot Bread. A joyous pop-punk romp, the album is packed with songs like “Hello Anxiety” that Joe Public can not only relate to but can sing along to with a beer in one hand and a massive grin on your face.

For all the poo-gags and the toilet humour, Bowling For Soup are a band that can put a smile on even the most miserable of faces. Songs like “Alexa Bliss” pay tribute to the WWE wrestler of the same name but, like the rest of the material on Pop Drunk Snot Bread, touches on those real-life subjects that we all daydream about like pretty girls, beer-drinking, and drunken late nights with your best mates. Of course, it doesn’t mean Bowling For Soup has done anything on this album that they haven’t done on the previous ten but it makes this is a recording that is the perfect antidote to take you away from rising bills, pandemics and how you’re going to make your shitty pay packet last another two weeks.

Whether you’re a pop fan, a death metal fan, a punk fan, or just a middle-aged bloke with a mortgage and two-point four children, Pop Drunk Snot Bread is the album you need in your life right now. As Reddick croons, “After all these beers, it’s a wonder we’re still standing…” during the track of the same name, in our slightly drunken state, we should all raise whatever we’re drinking for an appreciative toast to the band that they are. “There’s been a lot of bands like us blow up and come and go…0 Reddick reflects during the poignant “Wouldn’t Change A Thing” as we all sit here thinking how better a place the world is with Bowling For Soup to steer you through it.

Pop Drunk Snot Bread Track Listing:

1. Greatest of All Time
2. I Wanna Be Brad Pitt
3. Hello Anxiety
4. Getting Old Sucks (But Everybody’s Doing It)
5. Bowling for Soup Pee Break
6. The Best We Can
7. Alexa Bliss
8. Burn Out
9. June Carter Cash (Lost and Found)
10. Public Service Announcement
11. Killin’ ‘Em With Kindness
12. Wouldn’t Change a Thing
13. The Letter 3 (Sitcom Song)
14. After All These Beers
15. Greatest of All Time (Reprise)

Run Time: 51:30
Release Date: April 22, 2022
Record Label: Brando Records/Que-So Records