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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