Post-punk can be a tricky term to nail down. Yes, your brain might go to angular guitars, but to lay claim to that genre, all a band really needs to do is make certain their music is not simply punk. Case in point: the New York indie band Bodega. Since their inception, they’ve carried this label, in part because they’re hard to classify. Past albums have varied between melodic indie rock, jagged art rock, and even flirtations with hardcore. Now on their fifth release, All Inside Aquarium, the band has moved beyond—or maybe more accurately, before—all this for an album that (mostly) sounds like it could’ve been released in 1991.

Bodega announces this intention from its first song, the title track, which features frenetic riffs, psychedelic solos, and a “na na na” backing chorus that all call to mind the Stone Roses and Jane’s Addiction. Neither band is remotely post-punk, so it’s initially jolting to hear Bodega making songs that would’ve killed on college radio.

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But as the album goes on, I stopped thinking about how to categorize these songs and simply enjoyed them. There are several indie bands revisiting the ’90s right now, with most digging into the “Alternative Nation” era (Wishy and the Tubs are two stellar recent examples). Far fewer are pursuing the earlier “120 Minutes” sounds, let alone doing it as well as Bodega is here. They nail the right balance of catchy looping melodies and frenetic riffs on songs like “Astro Night Ride,” “Pick Up the Check,” and “Backbeaten.” Each feels expansively lush without ever losing that genuinely old school rock and roll momentum, in large part due to the hypnotic drumming of Adam Shumski and inventive lead guitars of Dan Ryan. Both of them especially kill it on the cover of Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train,” which sounds like a Ritual De Lo Habitual B-side in the best, most complimentary way possible. 

This album is also unapologetically optimistic in a simpler, more united ’90s way. Like “Literary World” finds them literally imagining a more beautiful, artistic society for us all, and “Fear not the Fear” offers a Dune-like mantra against building, shimmering guitars. However, instead of making me roll my eyes, I found myself welcoming it thanks to the warm vocals of Ben Hozie. He sells the good vibes by coming off less like an earnest poet and more like, well, a ’90s rock star. By which I mean Bodega passes the Oasis test: lyrics that only work in a rock song. Like, if you were to read them or think about them too deeply, they might not hold up. But sung with passion to a memorable melody and driving rhythm, they work. More than work, as you find yourself enthusiastically singing along.

Only minor drawbacks here are the songs that break from this mold, all of which happen to be sung by the band’s other vocalist, Nikki Belfiglio. Scattered across the album, her songs jump from bouncing indie dance-rock (“Weather Me”) to an intimate singer-songwriter remembrance (“Olivia”) to even the angular post-punk I came in expecting (“Pile Driver”). Belfiglio’s delivery is sharp and the songs themselves are good—“Pile Driver” will be on all of my upcoming workout playlists—but they feel out of place on this album. The one exception is “Oxygen,” where Belfiglio and Hozie share vocal duties. It’s great and left me wanting more like it.

But going back to that opening paragraph, Bodega lives up to its namesake by offering surprising variety. You never know exactly what you’ll discover when you walk into a new bodega, and you’ll never know exactly what you’ll hear on a new Bodega album. All Inside Aquarium shows they’re not just post-punk; they’re post-genre, and better for it.

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