Shopping - All Or Nothing

The fourth album from Shopping - comprising members of Trash Kit, Sacred Paws, Current Affairs and Wet Dog - is another impressive collection of spiralling, high-energy dance-punk. Though here, the rougher edges of 2018’s ‘The Official Body’ have been smoothed over with a cleaner-cut production courtesy of US-based producer Davey Warsop, and enhanced with a newfound appreciation for classic ‘80s synth-pop: the heavy, dystopian keyboards driving the darkened discos of ‘Follow Me’, ‘For Your Pleasure’ and ‘Lies’ sound like nothing else produced in Shopping’s seven-year existence. And yet, these departures aside, all in all, it’s steady business as usual. ‘All or Nothing’ is a grand refinement of their previous work, rather than a reinvention. Still retained is that amazing sense of propulsion and momentum the group have made their own; ‘Initiative’ and ‘Body Clock’ are impossibly fast, constantly threatening to overbalance themselves, yet always remaining resolute and gloriously intact.