EP REVIEW: Dog Years, by Purple Dog

Look, I don’t know how well you know the team here at Hamilton Underground Press, but let me tell you one thing. If a kiwi indy rock band happened to release a jangly EP, and that jangly EP happened to include a track called ‘Cricket Enthusiast’, we basically have no more boxes to tick. We are collectively hooked, lined, and sunk. A review is required, as fast as possible.
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Welcome therefore to Purple Dog, a band I algorithmically stumbled across about three hours ago, and their five-track debut, Dog Years.

Critic Te Ārohi has just informed me that they’re a bunch of Ōtepoti Dunedin music students, and their songwriting’s obvious smarts make that easy to believe. There’s been a good groove coming out of that most terrific of cities in recent years. Like L. Hotel, Purple Dog have that Otago knack of wrapping pop up as rock. Fun and cool, which can be a tricky combo, is something that southern bands have been doing in different ways for decades now. Yet this is no throwback.

Dog Years has undeniable energy. Opening pair ‘Always and Forever’ and ‘Hold On’ are pacy and sunny, then things get rockier and harder through ‘Delusion’ and ‘Cold Case’, a relatively dark number. They're a five-piece but there’s no overcrowding and no passengers. Vocalist Imogen sounds like she’s been radio-ready for years.

Finally, ‘Cricket Enthusiast’, the song title that drew this reviewer’s attention in the first place. It’s a punkier number, and a heap of fun to jump around to. There are shades of Emma Dilemma here, which are a good omen. Close lyrical analysis reveals a disappointing dearth of actual cricket talk, however. No leather, no willow, no comparison of days spent on the bank at the University Oval versus those whiled away on the grassy hillside of Seddon Park. Purple Dog have clearly missed a trick here, choosing instead to sing of human relationships, of which any genuine cricket enthusiast is bound to be ignorant if not outright dismissive. Tis the greatest of games, played almost entirely by joyless misanthropes, and it still awaits its own indy rock theme song.

But enough of my bullshit. Dog Years is good, really good. Fun, too. Especially for a debut it’s well-rounded, technically impressive, and professional to boot. It’s on Spotify, and YouTube, and hopefully it’s going to show up on Purple Dog’s Bandcamp some time as well. Seek it out now.