POP POP VERNAC - A SENSE OF HUMAN
Self-Released
Released on September 27th, 2025
Pop Pop Vernac’s newest EP, A Sense of Human, is what you remember the morning after your 18th birthday: a few songs, lots of yelling, and a good fuckin’ time. Though the EP is only 13 minutes, it feels like it’s 13 minutes you could be dancing to for the rest of your life. Pop Pop Vernac’s songs are fast and in your face, I’d like to imagine that if I were seeing them alive, I’d be hit with little flecks of spit as they bite and gnash their way through the chorus of “Parking Lot”. Production on the EP is phenomenal, it’s full of dense, crackly guitar and bass tones that sound like they’ve been marinated in the types of beers that get spilt on garage floors. A Sense of Human is just that: it’s real, rough, and keeps you coming back for more.
A Sense of Human, doesn’t make me feel sad, but by god does it handle sadness well. Looking into the lyrics on the record, none of them are particularly cheery; nobody’s finding a talking pot of gold at the bottom of a smiling flower that’s telling them all they need to do is be themselves. The lyrics are real, rough, and grimey, often describing situations or emotions that feel just less than perfect. There are a lot of ways to write about sad shit, but I admire when someone does it out of frustration or anger, deciding to get up and tell someone off rather than to sit and wallow.
“Parking Lot” is my favorite from A Sense of Human. In contrast to some of the other songs on the EP, the verses in “Parking Lot” are strongly melodic, a quality that is further highlighted by the song’s howlin’ chorus, and dynamite lyrics. Unexpectedly (though enjoyably), the more poppy and melodic quality of the verses combined with the lightly distorted guitar reminded me of Brit-Pop music in a similar vein to something like The La’s. The chorus strikes a strong contrast to the verse, oozing classic punk energy and humour through shouts and hollers of “Give it all ya got, in the parking lot”. In addition to the chorus, “Parking Lot” has great verse lyrics that manage to draw you in by giving you the details of a specific situation before widening later in the song to reveal more of their singer.
A Sense of Human is good punk music. It holds to what you expect when you need it to, and breaks from that the second it feels you losing attention. With amazing songwriting, performances, and production, Pop Pop Vernac’s A Sense of Human is worth at least 13 minutes of your time, and if you’re like me, probably more.
