Album Notes

Saturday Big Shop is Bison’s fourth album. On it, they rattle through 11 brass-led pop songs on subjects as diverse as cheese and marmite sandwiches, Barbra Streisand and Football Focus. This is modern life in all its skewed, bewildering glory, viewed through the bloodshot eye of the terminally sleep-deprived. Saturday Big Shop is full of shades of light and dark, but its ultimate affirmation is the importance of fun and, above all else, of getting involved.

The album opens with Stop yer Moaning, a manifesto song of sorts, and ends with the joyous instrumental Apocalypso. Along the way, Another Day details relationship trauma, Jason Pritchard reflects on the dreaded bully of fear-drenched school days, and Big Trouble in Great Yarmouth makes some attempt at getting to grips with this generation’s ultimate imponderable, climate change. Perhaps the strongest two tracks on the album are the anthemic title track, which thunders through several stylistic changes like a ska Bohemian Rhapsody as it details a doomed shopping expedition, and RTT, the irresistible driving reggae number whose lyrics reflect on a life fully, if chaotically, lived.

This is the best release yet from one of Britain’s most exciting new bands, and catches them at the top of their game. Put your shopping away, throw on something orange, and enjoy.