www.diskant.net

When there were a couple of days of sunshine last weekend, in amongst the usual drizzle and cold, this was the perfect album to listen to. Summery pop music, oh yes! This is really good - ‘up’ sounding tunes, based around the classic combo of decent songwriting/nice melody, bolstered with some subtle electronica which helps to fill out the sound and add a slightly odd edge to things. Merchandise seem to have a cheerily frank outlook on things, in the same way that the Flaming Lips do, with melancholic lyrics on remarkably good-natured-sounding songs. This falls short of becoming irritatingly twee or cutesy, and as such it’s a perfectly-pitched collection of songs to play on a warm evening whilst not worrying about things.

http://www.tastyfanzine.org.uk/

After last month’s wondrous single, comes the first long player from Manchester’s Merchandise. And it’s flippin’ good too. Far from going straight for the pop highway, Merchandise seem to content to lead you down a dark path marked ‘jazz’ before you enter the wonderful garden of indie pop, much like The Real Tuesday Weld, and their ilk. So, whilst ‘Beautiful Morning for a Bad Day’ is a cracking little number it’s interspersed by some kind of free-form funky drummer boy, just to leave you guessing, like…

Onwards! And ’14:53’ could tug at even the most stale of hearts, with it’s simple, pleading guitar coda. Yes, even mine. And Pinkie meets perky in ‘Distil Disappointment’, which features, somewhere in the background, a – gulp – driving distorted guitar. But back to safety with ‘Echolalia’, a sort of latter day Sinatra number, but the best is saved for next. ‘For the Shore’ is simple as Sam Dingle, but builds and builds and goes around and around, leaving you quite giddy with excitement. Honest. I’m not making this up.

To say Merchandise are a band of some quality is to understate this hugely enjoyable album, which has been spinning round, right round, baby, right round in t’ cd player for some time now. I suggest you buy this little beauty and try and make a worse Dead or Alive pun than that. Off you go.

Sam Metcalf