BODEGA - Our Brand Could Be Your Life

BODEGA’s fascination with - and frequent disdain for - many of the things that define our modern culture has been well-documented over the course of their first two studio albums, and now, as if just to prove that their satirical skewering of such matters is more than just an affectation, they’ve re-recorded the LP they released under a past guise, BODEGA BAY. The original version of ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life’ is over eight years old, but hardly needs to be dragged into the present day, so prescient were the Brooklyn collective’s 2016 musings on the commercialisation of pretty much everything. Back then, they recorded the record into a MacBook mic on GarageBand; now, they’ve gone back and pruned what was a sprawling 33-track manifesto into a much tighter 15-track concept album that makes deft use of their much-developed musicianship in the years since BODEGA took off.

Their observations remain cutting; on rampant commodification (‘ATM’), on sex work (‘GND’), on the diluting effect of gentrification on art (the three-part epic ‘Cultural Consumer’). Now, the scuzz and rough edges of their younger selves is swapped out for the fizz and crackle of these vital reworkings, which take in some of their most varied sounds to date; in amongst the usual post-punk vigour are hints of shoegaze, psychedelia and - on the standout ‘Major Amberson’ - melodic pop. BODEGA’s collective finger remains on the pulse, as they continue to cut their targets down to size nearly a decade after these songs were first penned.