Artist: Shopping
Album: The Official Body
Genre: Post-Punk/Indie Rock
Rating: 7/10
After two rocky albums that flexed the band’s knowledge in raw minimal Post-Punk with a strong frustration with identity politics, UK trio Shopping have finally found their niche with their third studio album The Official Body. The band’s previous albums carried heavy weight of mismatched tracks that had some great ideas, but the execution wasn’t living up to their full potential, and with the vast amount of band’s offering numerous essential releases that are helping advance the genre of Post-Punk, Shopping seemed like underachievers coasting by with the bare minimum in comparison. That is until now. Shopping brought their A game on this new record with cleaned up production that still contains simplistic but captivating instrumentation. The combination of hypnotizing almost surf-like guitar riffs, the funky bass grooves, and the percussion that adopts all of the standard danceable drum patterns that will force you to dance is a successful recipe that pulls the band out of obscurity. That sense of groovin’ fun never strays away from this record, but at the same time that sense of a cynical outlook on identity politics is present, however it’s a vague delivery filled with repeated phrases that can be interpreted in various ways, but you know damn well there is some underlying message beneath it. Whether you want to decipher these messages or not is totally up to you. The band isn’t into beating you over the head with their ideologies, but if you’re inclined to dig deep into what these tracks may or may not symbolize then that is also an open field for you. Shopping still have more evolving to do, and whether or not they will utilize their talents to advance even further remains to be seen, but this is a step in the right direction.
Written By: Steven Sandoval
Date: 01/20/18
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