http://www.uk-fusion.com/content/view/297/31

This is honestly the most extraordinarily amazing album that I have ever heard. With all twelve songs written and performed by multi-instrumentalists and musical geniuses Brad B. Wood and Conrad Astley (with a little help from some of their friends on the way), this Alt.-pop duo creates blissful music under the Merchandise guise - and there really isn’t one dull track herein.

Opened by the melodic jazz instrumental of ‘I Hate That You’re Living,’ given a song title like that these two guys might sound to be a little aloof, but they aren’t… as ‘Beautiful Morning For A Bad Day’ follows through, being an exquisitely original and thoroughly charming piece of work with a fantastic chorus and clever lyrics to boot (’I'm stealing speed from gravity’).

The album is a perfectly balanced mixture of slow & tender songs, ambitiously conceived instrumentals and bizarrely upbeat rock songs. Essentially, Brad and Conrad aim to marry acoustic-based music with music that is more Electro-orientated, with duties between the duo being equally shared out and well-defined: Brad sings and plays the guitars, while Conrad concentrates on playing all keyboard instruments and being in charge of the sequencers and samples.

‘14.53,’ while being quite a deep and dark song, is just as catchy as ‘Beautiful Morning…’ and hears Brad singing in a distinctive Steve Harley-styled manner (’I'll run through my excuses with a sword’ is one word-perfect lyric that really stands out), as the lush sounds of his slide & acoustic guitar slink over Conrad’s piano melody. Their ‘Sunday Song,’ meanwhile is far more Electro-orientated, ‘Distil Disappointment’ relies on Conrad’s keyboard-playing grandness and the magical ‘Winter’ revolves around subtle melodics and a painfully sweet piano chord progression coupled with lyrics that insist all is great once true love is found.

Still, ‘Echolalia’ is the highlight. Initially a fingerpicked acoustic tune, it’s not long before a great beat kicks in and an electric guitar starts-a-wailing. Boasting some truly abstract lyrics that concern themselves with the modern-day problems of seemingly making a simple phone call, the overall ‘pop’ vibes remind whole-heartedly of Pulp’s overpowering style in such a field.

The music of Merchandise, whether introspective and melancholic or brilliantly upbeat, is always ultra-melodic and harmonious as though the likes of Belle & Sebastian and Fonda 500 have heaped all their catchiest and coolest cuts together. The song arrangements are startlingly complex and you really do wonder why the hell this duo isn’t far more well known that it is.

You could live your life by ‘Lo-Tech Solutions To High-Tech Problems.’ And I know for a fact that’s true - because I do. 5/5

(Steve Rudd)