DVP (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "DVP" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by PUP | ||||
| from the album The Dream Is Over | ||||
| Released | January 26, 2016 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:28 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriters |
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| Producer | David Schiffman | |||
| PUP singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "DVP" on YouTube | ||||
"DVP" is a song recorded by the Canadian punk rock band PUP for their second studio album, The Dream Is Over (2016). It was released as the lead single from The Dream Is Over on January 26, 2016 through Royal Mountain Records in Canada and SideOneDummy elsewhere. PUP first emerged in the early 2010s from Toronto, where they went by the name Topanga and acquired skill in DIY punk clubs. They played hundreds of concerts on the road per year, touring nonstop to support themselves. "DVP" is credited to each of the band members—Stefan Babcock, Zachary Mykula, Steven Sladkowski, Nestor Chumak—who recorded the track with producer David Schiffman in their hometown.
The fast-paced, energetic punk track follows a drunken narrator who refuses to grow up miserably attempting to repair a relationship. Babcock carries the vocals, alternating between shouting and harmonizing. The song's title comes from the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto, an expressway the narrator drunkenly speeds down. "DVP" was well-received by contemporary music critics, with many deeming it a highlight from The Dream is Over. Its music video, which repurposes dialogue from retro video games as song lyrics, saw wide acclaim.
The Toronto-based punk rock quartet PUP first rose to notoriety on the strength of their 2014 self-titled debut. The group became heavy travelers, playing 250 shows that year in support, touring with acts like Modern Baseball and Jeff Rosenstock.[4] "DVP" is from The Dream is Over, the band's 2016 breakthrough sophomore effort, which solidified their standing in the modern punk canon.[5]
The song segues from the album opener, titled "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will".[6] Frontman Stefan Babcock sings of being intoxicated and conversational,[2] desperately trying to reconcile with a girlfriend he feels he needs to mature. In the track, he depicts himself "doing 180 on the Don Valley Parkway," a municipal expressway in Toronto for which the song is named.[1] Pushed to their breaking point, the narrator confesses that "nothing's working and the future's looking bleak"[7] and admits they don't want to live nor die.[8] The song ends with a joke, implying the narrator overindulges in Hawaiian Fruit Punch instead of alcohol.[9] Babcock later regarded the song with a mixed view, feeling as though it glorifies bad habits; though he admitted he still loved the song, he noted it was written when he was 25 years old and "would never write a song like that" with gained perspective.[10]
"DVP" was released through Royal Mountain in the band's native Canada, and via SideOneDummy Records elsewhere.[1] The band first shared the song on Twitter on January 26, 2016.[11][12]
Music video
The song's music video was directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, a regular collaborator with the band who also helmed their "Guilt Trip" clip. The song is essentially a lyric video, reciting the song's words over edited clips of retro video games.[13] "It's good to corrupt the things that corrupted us in the first place!" joked Schaulin-Rioux.[14] The video games pulled from include ToeJam & Earl, Super Mario Bros. 3, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam,[15] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Terminator.[16]
The music video was widely praised. Mark Beaumont from NME joked, "For gamers of a certain age, the new video for PUP's alcoholic's punk anthem 'DVP' is like watching your youth squandered on video games flash before your eyes."[16] Eric Ducker at Rolling Stone wrote that "'DVP' brings humor and creativity to the uninspired world of lyrics videos by taking over sequences from cartridge-console video games."[17] Jeremy D. Larson from Pitchfork ranked it among his favorite videos of its decade, "It looks deceptively basic but I’m guessing it was quite complicated to design. [...] It’s the most fun you can have watching words on a screen."[18] Andrew Unterberger at Billboard raved it was an "immaculately conceived and executed lyric video," ranking it among the best clips of the 2010s.[15]