Album review: Merchandise – After the End

After the End
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Artist: Merchandise
Genre: Rock
Label: 4AD

Merchandise are dead, long live Merchandise. Some listeners may find it hard reconciling the Tampa, Florida band who brought you previous albums Children of Desire and Total Nite with the band of the same name behind After the End, but Merchandise will always be ones with an eye for evolving. The punk yelping, hardcore guitars and fuzzy angst of old has been replaced with a much more textured and smartly embroidered set of indie pop points and signals. What's striking too is how Carson Cox's vocals have developed, shaking free of various comparisons to emerge as something vital and singular. Little Killer has a beautiful riff to draw you in, but Telephone and Exile and Ego are also attention-grabbing, with their clear musical lines and Cox's bruised, romantic lyricism. The sound of a band successfully getting to grips with a whole new rig-out.4ad.com

Download: Little Killer, Telephone