Indie quintet Bodega’s third album is sort of their first. It reshapes a 33-track lo-fi collection that precursor outfit Bodega Bay dropped in 2015, railing against capitalism’s baleful effect on everything. There’s now a triptych of songs called Cultural Consumer, where once there were five. Ambitiously, Bodega employ shoegaze, Sub Pop indie, post-punk and college rock for their vignettes about corporate-minded youth culture. Results vary.
Waving a mighty sword of observation is fine but without tempering it in the hot fire of analysis – how did we get here? Where do we go next? – your attack will always be weaker. Bodega Bait or ATM don’t bring anything to the kids v commerce discourse that you couldn’t get from a jpeg of Nirvana’s Nevermind.
