MERCURY REV
The Secret Migration
V2
· Though it won’t be released in Canada till April, the latest from these sonic visionaries is available on iTunes.
I know, I know. Never judge a book (or an album for that matter) by its cover. Check The Kinks's Schoolboys In Disgrace, one of the stupidest sleeve paintings ever but a great collection of ’70s rock-opera metal inside. But, dude, Mercury Rev's Secret Migration cover dives low, even for a band whose amazing recording history features some crap cover images already. You'd be forgiven for expecting Mercury Rev’s latest to sound like music to do yoga to based on its cover, but you'd be missing out on another batch of gorgeous gems.
From the beginning, Mercury Rev have been as much an experience as a rock band. Whether fronted by the barking mad David Baker on their earliest acid-warped, noise-led albums (Yrself Is Steam and Boces), or in their more familiar guise as orchestral Americana maestros under the leading hand of Jonathan Donahue, there's not really anyone else quite like them.
With The Secret Migration, Mercury Rev (once again paired with über-producer and original founding member Dave Fridmann) are treading the same water as their last two records, Deserter's Songs and All Is Dream, meshing Phil Spector-style atmospherics with anthemic swing and bottomless echo.
There's the occasional misstep that comes off like a second-rate Mercury Rev parody (most noticeable on "Black Forest (Lorelei)" with Donahue re-imagined as a white horse galloping through a fantasy scenario about as deep as a gnome painting on the side of a van), but this lot have been dwelling in an area of sonic bliss inhabited successfully by so few others that it's easy to forgive the occasional slip into silly whimsy. Think about it: who else could you take seriously pitching the same ideas? Who else could make something so gosh-darn pretty?
No one, that's who. These cats are as sumptuous as the world's best apple pie.
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