Bodega announce fourth album All Inside Aquarium and share title-track single

The new album follows 2024's Our Brand Could Be Your Life and marks a deliberate departure from the post-punk sound that has defined much of the band's catalogue. Guitarist and vocalist Ben Hozie describes the new material as aiming for "this late '80s/early '90s Stone Roses-meets-Jane's Addiction thing, with more riffing and guitar solos".

Speaking about the title track, Hozie says: "This track is an attempt at an existential anthem. Pain (after it subsides) can bring you closer to a beatific perspective where dichotomy disappears and curious creativity calmly trickles out like the faucet tube in the tub."

The accompanying video, directed by percussionist and vocalist Nikki Belfiglio, features the band green-screened into the album artwork – a miniature world Belfiglio built inside a fish tank over five months. "The miniature contains references to all of the songs on the upcoming album," she explains. "All of the pieces inside the tank are made out of wood, paper maiche, clay, metal, paint, and various other items."

The album was recorded over a month and a half in Leeds with producer Matt Peel, whose previous work includes Yard Act and Eagulls. Peel's studio, the Nave, is set up in a deconsecrated church, which also appears in the album's artwork. Mixing was handled by Theo Verney in Brighton.

"I never thought of us as a post-punk band," Hozie stresses. "I just thought of us as a conceptual rock band." He acknowledges that post-punk comparisons were earned through earlier records – including 2018's Endless Scroll and 2022's Broken Equipment – but says the tag has become limiting. "Post-punk is conceptual punk, so that lent itself to our thing early on, but at the end of the day, it's about our songwriting."

Lyrically, the band have shifted away from the more explicitly sociopolitical writing of earlier material. Hozie cites "Literary World" as the album's thesis song, describing it as "a playful tune" concerned with poetic rather than political consciousness. "A literary perspective is an empathetic one, because if you're a novelist, you have to understand the thinking of all of your characters, even if they're the most egregious people."

Bodega will preview the album with three New York shows, including a Central Park Summerstage date with Spoon and Ratboy on 8 July and a headline set at Elsewhere Rooftop on 19 August. A September European run includes a sold-out date at London's 100 Club on 15 September, with further UK shows added for November in Bristol, London and Leeds.

All Inside Aquarium artwork

All Inside Aquarium tracklist

"All Inside Aquarium"
"Weather Me"
"Literary World"
"Astro Night Ride"
"Pick up the Check"
"Oxygen"
"Fear not the Fear"
"Slow Train"
"Combustible"
"Pile Driver"
"Backbeaten"
"Olivia"