Totale Nite, Merchandise’s critically acclaimed 2013 EP, “was the end of book one,” according to the band’s guitarist/singer Carson Cox. New full length effort After The End is “the start of a whole new one,” apparently, and sees the reformed punks reinvent themselves as a gloom-pop band. Not that this sudden shift will surprise anyone who has followed the group: they’ve spent a career bucking conventions while doing exactly what they damn well please.
With a huge debt owed to the British indie of the ‘80s, the influence of the likes of Morrissey, Marr, The Cure and the Bunnymen can be felt throughout in the melancholic, alt-pop sound. ‘Little Killer’ is the type of song that Robert Smith would sell his lipstick collection for these days; ‘True Monument’ is a delightfully dark epic; and the acoustic-based closer ‘Exile And Ego’ ends things on a high. Though there are moments when the ‘80s indie influences are overdone (‘Telephone’ sounds like a Smiths cast-off) After The End is an enjoyable slab of twisted pop and another interesting instalment in Merchandise’s musical adventures.