After the End

Self-recorded and produced, the latest release from the now five-piece band led by Carson Cox is its first with its two new members: Chris Horn and Elsner Nino.

After the End is a record that is so determinedly mild-mannered, it essentially amounts to a declaration of war: against dominant notions of cool, the act of hiding your feelings behind a wall of noise, and the idea that anti-pop experimentation is inherently more noble and challenging a practice than writing a simple, emotionally direct love song. If the preceding Children of Desire and Totale Nite saw Merchandise concealing their ever-irrepressible new-romantic hearts under thick layers of squawking saxophones, wailing harmonicas, and droning repetition, here they are laid bare and encased in brightly lit glass boxes like a gallery installation.