Manchester Music Review For the Masses by Merchandise
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:: Merchandise ::
30 June 2010 / Cityscape / 13 Trk CD
By JA
Local stars and stalwarts of the ever present Bolton scene, Merchandise are back with a much welcome long player. Bolton is a place that deserves a bigger footnote for its recent contributions to great northern music and it’s bands like this that ensure that its reputation lives on. Brad B Wood and Conrad Astley certainly stir in various moods on this extensive collection of bright, melodic set pieces. Openers “Listen Up!” and “Sometimes” are pleasantly brisk, but respectably bustle and shuffle about their business. The slightly tougher “Enemy” remains laced in soft vocals, but has some infectious guitar loops to accompany the bouncy, almost ska tinged bass line – albums are worth the patience when they deliver up tracks like this. “Lonesome Beauty” serves up its own sublime mix of acoustica and pretty jungles, whilst “Lies Like These” thrives on smartly delivered American lo-fi pop footnotes. From here the album begins to slow down, picking up its heels only on “Travelling, Unravelling” before ebbing gently to its departure. “For The Masses” is an album of varying styles, somehow joined together with an intricate sensitivity and an underlying sense of fun.
MMM ½
