Merchandise’s new single arrived with me yesterday and seeing the cover, that familiar toon style of illustration and the brown/orange thang is really starting to stamp the Merchandise brand on all that they do. When a band starts to become a brand, things start to feel more cohesive and as a result things start to get a bit more exciting in some way. It should be avbout the music but if pop music was just about the music we’d be in a very different place.

Listen Up! is the follow-up to Sometimes – one of those catchy tunes from 2008 that still weaves its way into my head frequently. It’s a clever, confident track that doesn’t do very much. This makes it good… for me. Poppy to the hilt, it uses a lot of repetition (”You were my world wer – wer – wer world”), and has catchiness written all over it. It’s going to be another one of those naggers that keeps popping into my head in the spring of 2009.

http://www.minnellium.com/listen-up-by-merchandise

Looking forward to Merchandise’s album coming later this year – five years in the making.