When South London’s Fat Dog released their debut album WOOF almost two years ago, it would have been easy to write them off as a bit of a novelty act. Best known for a series of chaotic live gigs, featuring a drummer with a gigantic latex dog mask covering his head, the album successfully distilled their raw energy onto an album, but also seemed a bit one-note.

The follow up, Cancel Me (I’m Tired) seems to realise that and sees the six-piece at a bit of a musical crossroad. At times, it’s more of the same – distorted electro-punk that can sound like if Nine Inch Nails, Klaxons and Sigue Sigue Sputnik decided to party together. However, hidden amongst the musical anarchy, you’ll also find some surprisingly vulnerable, more inward-looking moments. Could Fat Dog be in for the long haul?

The initial impact is what you’d expect if you’ve ever heard Fat Dog before. Opening track Smile And Wave is a relentless assault on the senses, a big industrial disco track that thinks nothing about dropping a line like “fuck you like a horse” and then following it with the sound of a horse neighing.

Conversely, if it wasn’t for its title, the following Go Fuck Urself could almost be a mainstream hit. It’s a gorgeously smooth synth-pop song in essence, with frontman Joe Love almost crooning a chorus of “go and fuck yourself, I’m going to take you all down before I take myself”. It’s the classic example of a nihilistic anthem wrapped up as a big pop hit, and you can only imagine the singalongs it will provoke during live shows.

Much of Cancel Me (I’m Tired), as the title would suggest, was recorded against a background of stress and burnout. Several of the band’s original members have left, and Joe Love recorded the album on about three hours of sleep every night. So there’s inevitably a slightly manic, restless feel to some of the songs – Heart Of Darkness has a listless atmosphere to it, and is one of the more restrained moments, while Snakes is a theatrical, folky ballad with Love sounding like he’s in desperate need of that sleep he’s missing out on.

That burnout can be heard on the weary defiance on the title track, where Love despairs that “I’m better dead and gone, this shit is getting old” before simply admitting that he “was gonna write the next line, I can’t be bothered”. The fact that this is all set to a sparkly disco beat that wouldn’t sound out of place soundtracking Made In Chelsea just adds to the sense of disorientation.

It’s an album that’s probably better dipped into rather than being immersed in – the manic propulsion of something like Shit Love or Bad Dog is more effective in short doses, and by the end of the record, it’s more than likely you may feel a bit exhausted. If you haven’t been initiated into the Fat Dog cult, Cancel Me (I’m Tired) may not turn you into a convert, but it proves that there’s far more to the band than simply flinging around pints in a mosh pit.