When Nate Ruess, the lead singer of The Format, nearly began his band’s second studio album called Dog Problems with the vulnerable lyrics of “Can we take the next hour, and talk about me?” on the song “I’m Actual”, I had a feeling that I was in for an experience. How often does a band want you to lock in on a full-album experience by stating that you’re in for quite a bumpy ride of exploring the ugliest parts of a relationship ending. That experience that I felt when I first heard Dog Problems (early, due to the band releasing/leaking it themselves) was quite a thrilling ride of pop, rock, indie, and emo all put on blast with a journey through Nate’s heartbreak. The title itself comes from Nate’s experience with an ex-girlfriend where, “every single time we thought that maybe we were going to break up, we’d try to save the relationship by getting a dog,” and the record largely explores the different phases of going through these emotions of a breakup. Also going on at this time was the implosion of being shifted from the labels of Elektra Records to Atlantic Records, and being told that the completed product of Dog Problems needed a “hit single”. Thus the song “The Compromise” was added to the tail end of the LP, and Nate mentioned that the track, “wasn’t written because we were dropped, but in an attempt to get dropped from our label…we gave them something catchy—only it was about (our experiences with) them”. Nate Ruess and his longtime bandmate of Sam Means carved out a sweeping magnum opus on Dog Problems, and showcased that even the most unfortunate record label limbo couldn’t stop the power of this undeniable record.