Well, this is kind of weird. Just days after writing about the “long-gone-missing Merchandise,” Merchandise themselves have reemerged out of nowhere in what can only be explained either as a manifesting collusion with the universe or further evidence that’s we’re living in my own mind-reading simulation. “You Shot Me Down” marks the first new music from the shape-shifting punk band since A Corpse Wired For Sound arrived nine years ago, and according to frontman Carson Cox’s Instagram post accompanying the reveal, a new album from them has been in the works since 2019.

And would you look at that single art up above? That’s some classic Merchandise fontwork going on for anyone who’s been reaching for their well-worn copies of Children of Desire lately. It shows in the listen, as it gravitates ever so slightly away from the post-punk and synth-pop grandeur where the band last left off and rediscovers the strength of their grainier production style within their bouts of morbid romance where reverb-drenched guitars crashing into cascades of sparkling chords make their pop hooks ring heavy. “Is there nothing more? / Rapping at my chamber door,” Cox wonders. That doesn’t sound so much like an actual question as so much it does a warning shot: Merchandise are back, with perfect aim albeit.

Merchandise’s “You Shot Me Down” is available now.