Now I’ll start off by saying that I’m not a huge fan of female fronted bands. I am not a sexist by any means but there is just something about female vocals over a rock track that just really doesn’t appeal to me. It is lucky then for female fronted Merit that they do sound like one of the only bands with a female singer that I do like, Che. Merit’s vocalist Shannon Merritt sounds very much like Che’s Lydia Papaphilippopoulos and they both have great voices and both bands have similar styles. Merit however are a US band from New York and are signed to Aux Records and are hoping to be able to break free from the NY scene and be able to play shows all over the US and maybe eventually all over the world.

The album kicks off with ‘Found’ with has a beautiful piano intro but soon turns into a full indie/punk rock affair. The guitar riff on this song is the real highlight and gets the album off to a good start. ‘Locked From The Inside’ is another great song and really shows Merit at their best and Brenna Merritt’s vocals sound simply amazing, go listen to it on their myspace page. ‘Reunion’ is another really nice song and the mix of Brenna’s vocals and the acoustic guitar sounds beautiful and was a great choice by the band to make a video for the song. With the rest of the album there are some good songs (‘Stained Glass’ & ‘Cold’) and there are some not so good songs (‘40-16’ & ‘Lost’) but all in all ‘When We Fight’ is a solid album which has already won them a lot of new fans.

Merit are a good band and anyone who likes other female fronted bands like Che, Tsunami Bomb, The Eyeliners or maybe even The Distillers should give them a listen. This album is a solid first release and people should definitely check out songs like ‘Locked From The Inside’ & ‘Reunion’ because it doesn’t matter what genre(s) of music you are into, you will be able to appreciate songs as good as those.

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