The album’s title is a phrase borrowed from a short story called The Secret History of World War 3 by JG Ballard. It’s a track originally written by guitarist Dave Vassalotti, but under Cox’s influence it takes a whole new meaning – the lyrics sounds pessimistic and defeated, but it’s still easily the most beautiful and emotionally moving track Merchandise have ever released. “Blood is thicker than water, but both will go down the same drain,” sings Cox on the predominately acoustic “I Will Not Sleep Here”, the album’s penultimate track. feels like it’s coming from a much darker and honest place, like Cox coming to terms with the fact that he feels burdened by reality.
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The beauty of Merchandise’s previous work was in a broken-hearted romantic doing creepy-yet-poetic things like getting drunk in his ex’s old room and sleeping in a park (2012’s Children of Desire) or drinking the perfumed air and finally feeling free with a heart that with no chains attached (2013’s Totale Nite). A Corpse Wired… sounds just as beautiful as Merchandise’s all of previous work, but it’s a different sort of beauty. His decision was an intense and poetic one, fuelled by intelligence and subsequent delusion - stopping just short of desperation - but the influence that Cox shedding his past and possessions has had on the new Merchandise album is profound. The album is filled with loneliness (“Silence”) and the futility of love (“End of the Week”) - themes inspired by the fact that Cox sold everything he owned and left his home for the first time in order to set up shop in New York and Berlin. In that sense, they’ve always been outsiders in the punk scene, but A Corpse Wired… stands out as the band's most isolated work to date. While their side-projects are certainly a lot heavier and more experimental in sound, Merchandise has always been the band’s chance to show their pop chops.
It’s understandable why they made that statement – they were never really a punk band in sound per se, only in spirit. However, After the End’s sound always came across like a temporary experiment just to test how polished they could actually make their sound it was even a statement of pop-intent aimed at all the people that still referred to them a punk band purely because of their strong DIY roots. But, this still sounds like the band’s most developed work yet - less actually is more. I bet they really like dry ice.The band are back to their original trio for A Corpse Wired for Sound, having previously expanded to a five-piece for the recording of 2014’s After the End. In short: a more experimental the Killers.
They max their sound out completely so this is the loudest thing you'll ever hear but there's some enjoyable moment such as 'End of the Week' also known as the moment Gary Numan met Kevin Shields and it's these guitar pyrotechnics that keep them interesting. Cox never knowingly opens his mouth fully so I can't really tell what he's singing about but I've heard much worse music than this. This album has a very dystopian futuristic sound which on certain tracks veers dangerously near Gary Numan territory.
'Crystal Cage' for example dares to use a waltz beat and 'Right Back to the Start' uses squelchy synths over which Cox adds vocals that are one part Bruce Springsteen and one part a man singing whilst having his mouth jammed closed with rusty nails. There's a bit more to them than just post punk though - they sometimes sound like what would happen if Interpol got inventive. They've gained their money by producing dark arena rock that references all those people from the past such as Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and have to be congratulated in producing this years 54000th post punk release. Why is it taking so long for my vinyl to arrive?ĭoes the title refer to a future post death Cliff Richard tour? Just imagine.Īnyway Merchandise are a quartet who you may not have heard of but are successful enough for frontman Carson Cox to be able to afford two houses according to the press release.
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