Smart, literary, packed with cultural references from film, books and art, the New York post-punk band’s fourth album is a more melodic release than the punchier of previous, being in part a self-reflexive reworking of much older songs from their previous incarnation as Bodega Bay. While the songs overall feel more wistful, bittersweet and melodic than the angry and angular of albums such as Endless Scroll or Broken Equipment, the subject matter of songwriters and singers Ben Hozie and partners Nikki Belfiglio remains rooted in all manner of social and political issues, whether that be technology, social media, gentrification, or in this case advertising and consumerism, and with a play on words, the band itself as a brand, referring to the book Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991 by Michael Azerrad (2001). And of course there’s a strong element of the meta at play too here, from opener Dedicated to the Dedicated, or Bodega Bait, in which after a dry commentator’s voice asking the “difference between artist and advertiser”, the initial lyrics are “This is the Bodega Song / It’s not going to be very long / We’ve got so many things to sell you / But there’s not time to sing along.” Much to unpack then in this clever meta-album, with a mix of the old and new, and standouts that include Stain Gaze, ATM’s great bassline, Major Amberson, Tarkovski, the Cultural Consumer three-parter, and closing number City Is Taken, in which Belfiglio takes a self-deprecatory look at the city’s gentrification and admits she is as much part of it. Moving from What’s Your Rupture? label, this album is out on Chrysalis.
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