Listen Up! played on Huw Stevens’ show on Radio 1!
In the wee small hours of the 29th Jan (if you need the date to play the show . . .) Huw Stevens played Listen Up! on the glorious Radio 1. Listen to his show here:
Free Download - Sunday Song
To reward you lovely people who come to visit us on this site, we’re giving away free downloads of tracks from our back catalogue or remixes/ acoustic versions etc.
Last month we brought you Minnellium’s great remix of Glitterati which is still there for you to listen to but we’ve taken down the free download link. Instead, this month, your free track is Sunday Song from our last album Lo-Tech Solutions to Hi-Tech Problems. This spikey little tune is one of our favourites from that album and it’ll be here to be downloaded for free for a short while before I put the next one up! So have a listen on the player below and get it downloaded while you have chance! Cheers for visiting us! Comments always welcome . . .
Download link here (right click save link as or similar):
Listen Up to Listen Up!
If you’ve not heard the new single yet - here it is. Leave your comments please!
Listen Up!
Merchandise are returning with another slice of pure pop gold.
Hot on the heels of last year’s much praised single Sometimes, and offering another tantalising taste of their forthcoming album For the Masses, Listen Up! is so life affirming the band had no choice but to stick an exclamation mark after the title.
While Listen Up! may be a tale of heartbreak and emotional torment, it is told against a sparkling musical backdrop – a tune more infectious than a winter flu pandemic and a pounding beat which sounds like it’s just punched its way out of a Wigan Casino all-nighter.
This acoustic guitar driven two and a half minute gem showcases the electronic production techniques and pop songwriting that have become Brad B Wood and Conrad Astley’s trademark, while pointing to the energy of the band’s live shows which include John A Stewart on bass and Matt Maher on drums.
At its heart is the irresistible refrain: “All I’ve ever really wanted is a girl to make me shout, Hey lads now listen up – this is what life’s about!”
B-side Lonesome Beauty, meanwhile, shows yet another side to the band’s musical vision, with gentle bossa nova and worn velvet vocals giving way to a blistering chorus, sly drum samples, and a bassline more groovy than anything heard since Chic were last in the house.
With both tunes, Merchandise have produced the perfect antidote to winter’s greys and blues, and have once again produced a familiar, yet unique cocktail of charming, disarming and seductive music.
So go on, treat yourself to a taste of Merchandise.
Listen Up Launch at The Aftershow 27th Feb
We will be playing at the Aftershow at Moho Live on the 27th February to launch the new Listen Up! single. We’ll be on at 11:00 but there’s a whole night of great bands. Tickets are available from us for £5 - email brad@cityscaperecords.co.uk for details. Hope to see you there!
Click the flyer to see it big and get more info!
Leeds Music Scene Review Listen Up!
Jessica Thornsby
Merchandise’s second single from forthcoming album ‘For The Masses’ is a laidback slice of pop that forsakes big, brash hooks in favour of a rattling acoustic guitar that better showcases ‘Listen Up!’s twinkling synths and toe-tapping piano notes.
While initial impressions of ‘Listen Up!’ may be that’s it’s pretty enough, but distinctly underwhelming, its blissed-out rhythms work a slow magic on the listener, and you’ll gradually be won over.
Merchandise’s decision to pair downbeat lyrics with a pleasant, summery backing track, is an interesting one, and it’s what prevents ‘Listen Up!’ from sounding like just another piece of manufactured pop.
The slower groove of B-side ‘Lonesome Beauty’ is less accomplished. It’s a little too stripped-down, and lacks the pop shimmer that made ‘Listen Up!’ such a charismatic track. This is largely because Merchandise abandon the bright synths in favour of a more driving, electronic beat, which jars against frontman Brad’s breathy vocals and the scattering of sparkling synths. However, the sparser arrangement does showcase Merchandise’s talent for penning catchy pop lyrics. ’Lonesome Beauty’ does thankfully pick up the tempo towards the end, with the help of glimmering, ‘Listen Up!’-style synths.
Merchandise have a more sedate take on pop that, refreshingly, eschews the genre’s usual reliance on the huge, hook-packed chorus, and delivers something that works on the listener in subtler ways. This two-track single is hardly life-changing, but it’s a pleasant jaunt through indie-pop territory that’ll lift your spirits and, after all, that’s what pop is all about.