Hi, Matty here. I wrote this review three years ago, and I have absolutely no idea why I didn’t publish it right then. I was reviewing an album that was already a year old at the time! In compiling my soon-to-be-published review of new music I bought in 2025—once again, to be published from the cutting edge of punctuality—I recalled I’d put some thoughts down re: the Shoppers. Well, here be-ith them thoughts—sturdy ones, at that, as I actually haven’t changed a word of it.

Green Bay’s outstanding Smart Shoppers dropped album #2 recently, and snapped me from my Smart Shoppers-less stupor: though it was released in 2021, I still needed their debut, “Dorkwave”. Said disc was thusly acquired (by me, transactionally) and spun many a spin.

Review: It’s good. They’re good! Chock fulla repeated hits to my anti-capitalist solar plexus in the “mindless consumerism = ridiculous doom” sense. The plastic-machine-music of ex-Invitamins Aaron Smart and Jash Thraft + Boris the Sprinkler frontman/Earth’s Greatest Rocker Norby Shopko leaves terminally-over-advertised-at vocalist Joey Shops delirious, disaffected, and oddly determined, reeling off syllables like overstocked inventory, staggering through endless aisles of dreadfully stale deals.

Catchy existentialism ensues. But oh, the irony—can I tell people to buy this? Am I no better than the drooling Amazon addicts the Shoppers scorn? Have I learned nothing?! Well, mostly I’ve learned fresh possibilities for social commentary via music, and that—as of this crop of tunes—there is no greater opening song line than that of “Scratch and Dent“.

I also learned they aren’t just a rad live band, though they sure are:

Joey Shops, formerly of Last Sons of Krypton, recorded the album at his Lucky Lamb Studios, adding neat lil’ sound FX and clips throughout.

The group’s new album is called “Leftovers for Tomorrow” and the question is not whether you can afford to buy it, rather, can you afford not to?

-Matty