Where Serious Meets Silly: a review of Parental Petulance’s self titled.

By Egypt Ali

There are very few bands that I can label as fun. There are even fewer that are good on purely their ability to make serious music incredibly silly. Then there is Parental Petulance. To understand their sound, you would have imagine early Skillet style riffs, Flatfoot 56 type energy, and a Family Force 5 thought process in the lyrical creation department.

Parental Petulance have defined themselves as “parent punk” and rightfully so. Comprised two couples and between them five children total, the band itself creates music based on the antics of their children. This is obvious in hits such as “Poops in My Butt” and “Gibberish”. Each tune follows the escapades that parents everywhere face in the daunting task of changing poopy diapers and trying to translate their children’s thoughts into an intelligible sentence.

This was just a fun project to listen to from start to finish. Musically speaking it was very solid. The dangers of the punk scene include a vast majority of bands sound the same song to song. The trend becomes both repetitive and extremely boring leading to it being one of my biggest pet peeves. This was not the case in this project. Each song had a completely individual sound and style creating a dynamic about as wild as the children that they are singing about.

The lyrics on this particular project though are my favorite. I am used to pretty deep lyrics with political undertones and some type of message. Those were all there, but when the antagonists are a bunch of children under the age of 10, hilarity ensues. Rebelling against the government is easy, rebelling against the picky eating habits and defiance of a toddler is something else entirely. The lyrics were so relatable, that even I, as a childless bystander, could empathize with the antics they sung about. Everyone will probably remember doing at least one of these things to their own parents. Parents will be able to relate (or commiserate depending on your outlook) to stories such as Dinos in the Dishwasher or with lyrics like “Who needs a pool when you’ve got a toilet. The water’s always perfect when you want to take a swim.” The stories are hilarious, cringe worthy, relatable, and unfortunately for parents everywhere, true.

In all the music was solid, the lyrics hysterical, and the project a blast to listen to from start to finish.

Highly recommended.

-Egypt Ali