Soup Can Pop Band is a reflective and riotous album by Estonian indie rockers The Boondocks

Who: Beloved, multi-award winning Estonian indie band The Boondocks started their journey in 2012. Well known in their home country, the band members are now looking to make a name for themselves in the Baltics, Scandinavia, and beyond.

What: Their fourth album, Soup Can Pop Band, is a conceptual album of 11 tracks carried by frenetic drum beats, gritty riffs, and witty, existential lyrics. This is a coming-of-age record in part, centring on a protagonist who navigates the choppy waters of life. Perhaps, unusually for a punk album, some of the songs reflect a desire to grow and love. These can be found alongside anarchic anthems with anti-system sentiment.

What they say: “The album is a passive-aggressive critique of modern society and politics through a homage to punk music in all its historical diversity,” the band say. “We decided to stray away from our previous light-hearted indie pop and delve into the punk genre. The protagonist goes through an emotional journey that takes them from disappointment and bitterness to a sort of ambiguous awakening. The point wasn’t to offer solutions or catharsis but to illustrate the frustration with contemporary society today.”

Why you need to listen: With post-punk and indie music influences, Soup Can Pop Band is a tribute to two music traditions. It is timely too, wrestling with the questions of how the individual relates to society, propped with references to trolls and self-help literature. We were hooked by the album’s emotional opener, “Man of the People”, and “(10455)” for its krautrock-inspired dance grooves.

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