Album Info Hide Show Artist: Merpire Album: Simulation Ride Released: Australia, 2021 Tracklist: A1 Village 3:23 A2 Lately 2:52 A3 Brain Cells 3:55 A4 Habit 3:05 A5 Dinosaur 3:38 B1 Sink Interlude 1:12 B2 Easy 3:27 B3 Heavy Feeling 3:26 B4 Old Vein 3:12 B5 Sink In 3:42 B6 Yusiimi 3:42 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. 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If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show If youve ever tried to outpace your own thoughts on a tram rolling down Swanston Street, Merpires Simulation Ride will feel disarmingly familiar. The Melbourne songwriter Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt built her debut around the anxious loop that can turn a Tuesday into a psychological carnival, and the result is a pop-adjacent indie record that holds your hand while it tells you the truth. It arrived in July 2021, right in the middle of a stop-start year for gigs, and it carries that mix of cabin fever and clarity you only get from writing in small rooms with big feelings. Merpire is a deft arranger, but the records emotional core never gets lost in the craft. She co-produced Simulation Ride with James Seymour, a frequent collaborator known for his project Feelds, and you can hear how closely they listen to each other. Guitars glow rather than roar, synths slip in like a change in weather, and the rhythm section pushes the songs forward without crowding them. It is a clean, confident production that still leaves air around the voice, which matters because her voice is the guide through the maze. The singles give you a good map. Dinosaur has that gentle-lurch feel of waking up and realising you are still carrying the habits you thought youd evolved past. The guitar figure circles while Merpire teases out the tension between comfort and change. Brain Cells is the earworm, and not in a cheap way. It rides a bright melody to ask a blunt question about mental bandwidth, the kind of hook that sounds sweet until you clock how pointed the lyric is. Then theres Village, a song that sits in the pocket with a soft pulse and narrates the way we sometimes outsource our identity to the people around us. None of these tracks lean on volume to make their case. They reward repeat spins, which is why the album keeps growing after that first pass. What I love most here is the way she treats anxiety as something you can study without flattening it. The title isnt a gag. A lot of these songs look at fear from a few steps back, like taking notes on a ride you have to queue for anyway. A small synth smear will feel like a quick change of light. A vocal harmony will slip in, and suddenly the lyric shifts from private confession to common language. You end up with indie pop that knows its own nervous system, and uses it to move. It is also a very Melbourne record in spirit. You can hear the community radio sensibility in how it prizes detail and warmth over sheen. The year it came out, a lot of local artists were making albums in pockets of time between restrictions, and Simulation Ride sits in that lineage while feeling distinct. The partnership with Seymour is part of that. Not long after this album they started the duo Wilsons Prom, which makes sense. The chemistry is obvious here in the patient builds and the way the arrangements serve the story. If you are crate-digging in a Melbourne record store and spot Simulation Ride vinyl, do yourself a favour and pull it out. The songs suit the formats pacing. Side A has a gentle accumulation that lets the anxieties breathe, and by the time you flip to Side B, you are listening for the little production choices that end up feeling like signposts. The guitars have a soft bite that sits nicely at home volume, and the vocals stay intimate, which is exactly where these stories live. If you like to buy Merpire records online, this is the one to start with, and it sits neatly alongside other Merpire albums on vinyl or EPs if you are building out that section of the shelf. For anyone tuning in from outside Australia and browsing vinyl records Australia, this is a strong introduction to a songwriter who writes with compassion for her own mess and yours. The hooks are real, the words land, and the performances feel lived-in rather than fussed over. There are bigger, flashier indie pop albums from that year, but not many that look you in the eye like this one does. So yes, seek out Simulation Ride vinyl if you can. It is a record that invites you back, not with a gimmick but with good songs and a point of view. And once it grabs you, you will likely go hunting for more Merpire vinyl, because thats what happens when an artist lets you into their head and it feels a bit like home. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review