Shopping Malls Make You Vicious

Automatic “Is It Now?”

With only a few minor tweaks, Automatic have shifted from minimalist ESG vibes to icy romantic early New Order vibes, and the aesthetic shift suits them well. Like a lot of their material, “Is It Now?” is overtly leftist in its POV but a little unsure of how strident it wants to be about it. That tension moves from subtext to text in this song, which is about struggling to find the right balance between being angry about the status quo and trying to live a happy, fun life. As with some of their other songs, the core anxiety seems to be a fear of getting sucked into the black hole of consumer conformity. They know it’s seductive, they know how easily they could be sucked into it, they know how much they already are, but they’re still resisting the urge to give in to comfortable complacency.

Buy it from Bandcamp.