Merit - Arson Is For Lovers [Album]

Aux Records

May 23, 2009, 04:50 AM

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I was smuggling two bottles of over the counter weight loss medication out of a.... never mind where it was. I had this guy who sold them for three dollars less than retail, and cut me four dollars on each bottle. An electronic beep forced me to a stop on the way out. Turning around, I smiled to the manager, who had materialized directly behind me. She smiled, waved me on. Clear. Those were my teens. Close calls, near death scenarios, good burritos, and an energetic pop-rock soundtrack. Drums go bop-bop, cars go crash. Fire, blood, laughter, awkward romance. Merit brings to mind the auspiciousness of youth. Disestablished and manic. It's tangible in "Arson Is For Lovers".

"Arson Is For Lovers" is a pop album, for sure. There's nothing here that couldn't fit on any top 40 station, but it does bring on waves of nostalgia. Angst ridden, yeah, but who wouldn't identify? The strength of "Arson Is For Lovers" is a lasting pop chart appeal, but truly endearing was the less than radio friendly track "Cut and Run". As the shortest track on the album, it offered a purer taste of the muse. It's in "Cut and Run" that we find the sharpest guitar work, the strongest vocal harmonies, and a driving drum beat to rival rocks finest diesel engines.

I've long since passed the old music collection on to my seventeen year old sister. Evolution is part of a non-static existence. I hear she's creating her own complicated car wrecks now, and I'm proud. This juvenile delinquent will be the litmus test by which Merit will ultimately be judged. It's for her that "Arson Is For Lovers" is meant. It's a gymnastics act, keeping up with the kids. On the radio of a shitty first car, too fast with some boy, she'll admire the stars as "Bring Us The Sun" breaks into those floating, reverb laden guitar washes. I'll settle with just keeping "Cut and Run" on my iPod.

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