Album Review: I Bleed Pop by Seal Pup

By: Stephen Wilkins

Originally published December 4, 2019, by Plasma Magazine  

Self-reflection is at the core of Seal Pup’s latest release I Bleed Pop. Jake Cook, the mind behind the project, wrote, recorded, performed, and mixed the entire album. The tracks are tight pop songs, with heavy distortion, and more than a fair amount of angst. I Bleed Pop feels like stumbling upon someone’s personal sketch pad. Everything is laid bare, with messy interpretations of the world, scrawled in concentric circles, looking in upon itself. Cook stares into the void in an unflinching manner and still manages to find a glimmer of light. 

These songs are about the lyrics, the music is just the wrapping paper. The wrapping paper is cigarette scented and filled with holes, and it probably came from your drunk uncle, so it’s definitely not age appropriate for a five-year-old, but it’s still a gift nonetheless. Only a single track breaks three minutes. The album flies by, leaving you unsettled and slightly disturbed.

On track two, “Mandatory Metallica” he sketches a picture of a woman down on her luck in life and love, “Slipped into the void like a fresh-made bed/Wandered around in a fugue state, dark storm clouds inside her head.” Cook produces these vivid images of what it is like to be depressed, the cloudiness of it mixed with a sense of never being fully present. Despite this, he does give his subjects a way out that isn’t fatal. He ends the track with a faint candle “There’s a light at the center of every defective brain.” 

Track six, “The Elusive Chanteuse”, is a meditation on a newly unearthed side of Seal Pup, both musically and emotionally. Through embracing his feminine side he explores the strength that it encapsulates. “She’s peaceful and reserved/She’s got resolve and strength/She doesn’t bleed in darkness/She doesn’t hide her pain”, he sings. Cook has obviously been working through some things, and there is certainly blood in the lathe of this record. He ends with the final resolve “Sometimes I think that I could be her if I set my mind free/Until then, she resides inside me.” 

These tracks are simultaneously more emotionally mature and tortured than the early pop punk and emo of the mid-2000s. The balance between hope and angst is proof of that. If Cook were in his early twenties this could have been a much more infantile and sophomoric release, but age has distilled some wisdom that only comes with time. Despite the heavy subject matter of I Bleed Pop, there are still plenty of catchy, and hummable moments. Just like your drunk uncle, he’s got the strangest and most interesting stories.

You can find I Bleed Pop on Bandcamp and Spotify, and stay up to date on shows via Instagram and Facebook.