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.
Much better is GND Deity, a punchy metallic funk side-eye at the “girl next door” online sex industry, electrifying despite dated references to the long-gone web pages. Tarkovski offers phenomenal guitar soloing amid its assured take on the early Pavement sound. And closer City Is Taken is poignant on how money narrows our horizons. These New Yorkers make its payoff, “pack your bags and move to Detroit”, sound like the worst of all fates.
