new music: shopping’s ‘why choose’ is the best damn post-punk record in years #soundcheck

There was something about that most recent post-punk revival wave that always felt a little disingenuous. Maybe it was that it was too slick, blurring the borders between being danceable melodic but distinctly punk rock and just being pop. The best bands of post-punk’s many eras, from Gang of Four to Silent Alarm-era Bloc Party, always had this feeling that they were on the verge of falling apart. That their dance beats and hooks were in defiance of a lurking anxiety just beneath the surface. But with an appropriately minimal and ironic name, London’s S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G. delivers one of the best damn post-punk records in years.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK contributor

“Wind Up” accomplishes the almost impossible magic trick of sounding both like a lost classic from post-punk’s golden age while still sounding totally new. The relentless four-on-the-floor drums, jittery guitar/bass harmonies, and shout-sung vocals unwind themselves in coils of nervous energy. Singer Rachel Aggs’ plucks unlikely hooks out of jagged guitar lines, particularly on the gloriously defiant “Time Wasted.”

The band smartly skewers the need for instant gratification throughout the record, and nowhere better than in “Why Wait.” Rachel Aggs sings “Why wait when it’s all on my doorstep?” in a self-condemnation of both the engine of modern online capitalism and her own complicity in it. What SHOPPING does better than just about anyone in punk right now is acknowledge that the systems they rage against are massive and inescapable, and maybe even alluring sometimes. It’s very easy to write songs criticizing others, but to make you think critically about your own place within the system all while keeping you on the dance floor is some seriously rare shit.