This is another album I was very slow on the uptake with. I had heard a couple of decent tracks from A Corpse Wired For Sound on KEXP, and I was also familiar with the band's earlier work, mainly 2014's After the End, which I quite liked. It was during a late 2016 trip to Vancouver, I found the album sitting in the used bin for $6, along with Glass Animals' new one, so I bought both.
Glass Animals was a bust, but Merchandise was a steal for $6.
As with a lot of bands I like, Merchandise are hard to categorize. There's a bit of a punk swagger to their work, less from the music but more from the attitude. Their name alone screams making fun of crass commercialism, and a self-referential nod to themselves being merchandise of a sort. There's a melodic pop feel to their work, along with a disorienting psychedelic murk. There's a goth/electronic vibe going along there too. There's post punk. There's dance.
The band also tend to reinvent their sound after each album. Whereas After the End was an enjoyable and slightly skewed take on indy pop, their previous album, Totale Nite, was a sprawling experimental rock gem. This album is much darker, murky and difficult than After the End, but well worth digging into.
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