Automatic: Is It Now? [Album Review]

Automatic
Is It Now?
Stones Throw Records [2025]

“A sleek, rhythmic jolt that proves Automatic are operating on their own wavelength.”

Album Overview: Automatic formed in Los Angeles nearly a decade ago when Izzy Glaudini, Halle Saxon, and Lola Dompé began shaping songs with minimal gear and a lot of instinct. Their early tracks leaned on tight structures and a shared love of rhythm over flash. Touring behind Excess sharpened their chemistry and brought personal shifts that fed straight into their writing. As each member stepped into life outside the band, they returned with a clearer vision and a stronger feel for one another’s instincts.

Is It Now? explores the push and pull of modern life through grooves built for motion and reflection. Automatic channel confusion, pressure, and the grind of everyday systems into songs that question routine and the ways people adjust without noticing. Instead of escaping into fantasy, they hold up a mirror and let the rhythm carry the weight. The album stays grounded but leaves space for urgency, curiosity, and those quick flashes of insight that hit when you least expect them.

Musical Style: The record thrives on tight basslines, circling synths, and percussion that keeps everything moving forward. Instead of stacking layers, Automatic use space like an instrument, letting each part guide the listener. You can hear shades of late ’70s post-punk, early electronic experiments, and stripped down funk throughout. Even when the lyrics nod toward darker corners of society, the music stays sharp and addictive, easy to move to, but built with purpose.

Evolution of Sound: Compared to their earlier work, Is It Now? feels looser and more open. Automatic stepped away from rigid sequencing and leaned into live recording on analog tape, giving the album a natural, instinctive flow. Their communication as players has never been stronger, allowing them to shift tones without losing momentum. It’s the sound of a band growing more confident and trusting the spark between ideas to shape the music.

Artists with Similar Fire: If you connect with A Certain Ratio, Delta 5, Bush Tetras, Air, Ladytron, The Raincoats, Broadcast, or early Stereolab, this album is right in your lane. Anyone drawn to dance-ready music with edge, repetition, and sharp social awareness will feel at home here.

Pivotal Tracks: “Black Box” sets the tone with a slow tightening groove and the warning “greed will ignite and burn you from within,” making it one of the album’s most infectious openers. “mq9” pushes forward on a looping bassline that reflects its critique of unchecked ambition through the line “anything to raise a stock.” “Mercury” turns inward, carried by the weary realization “lonely when your time runs away,” offering a rare moment of quiet reflection. “Don’t Wanna Dance” captures the pressure of social expectation with its repeated admission “I don’t want to dance, I’m hiding,” while “Smog Summer” grounds the album’s environmental anxiety in the stark truth of “this isn’t living at all.” Together, these songs show how Automatic use sharp phrases and steady rhythm to illuminate the world they’re moving through.

Lyrical Strength: The lyrics on Is It Now? rely on clear, concise statements that shine a light on confusion, pressure, and the narrow space between clarity and struggle. Lines such as “greed will ignite and burn you from within” and “anything to raise a stock” cut directly at systems that feel overwhelming yet impossible to ignore. Emotional drift surfaces in “lonely when your time runs away,” while “this isn’t living at all” pins down environmental frustration. These short, sharp phrases form the album’s core, marking the world Automatic is navigating with memorable simplicity.

Final Groove: Is It Now? feels like the moment where Automatic level up without losing the spark that made them compelling in the first place. The grooves hit harder, the ideas land sharper, and the band sounds fully locked into their own rhythm of questioning the world while keeping you moving. It’s the kind of record that grows bigger the more you sit with it—sleek on the surface, restless underneath, and full of those lines and textures that linger long after the final pulse fades out. If Automatic were already on your radar, this album cements why they should stay there. If they weren’t, this is the perfect entry point.

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