Mercury Rev--Deserter's Songs

(V2 27027)

It is with great difficulty that Mercury Rev's newest, the symphonic Deserter's Songs, be placed in the annals of Rock.

Always fond of multiple and somewhat unconventional instruments such as the Theramin and the bowed saw, the Rev have tested the boundaries of pop formalism. More so than any of their albums to date, Deserter's Songs offers a coherent and complete look into tone contrast and sublime melody. More appropriately described as theme music to a space age dream or lullabies for the insomniacs, this latest disc is sure to shed light onto this somewhat (in my humble opinion) dismal year in music.

The story of the band's conception begins in 1990 when Jonathan Donahue, guitarist and chief songwriter for the current Mercury Rev lineup, made a cameo on the Flaming Lips' soundmontage, In a Priest Driven Ambulance. Hooking up with the co-producer of the album, DaveFridman (an excellent bassist in his own right) Donahue went on to form the foundation of the ever-changing Rev. Ironically, the only real similarities that the Lips and Rev shared was an affinity for exploring the fringes of rock, both walking down completely different sidewalks.

In 1991, Mercury Rev's debut, Yerself is Steam, was released to moderate praise and set the pace for years to follow. A more-than-adequate contemporary to My BloodyValentine's ethereal Loveless, Mercury Rev's debut demonstrated aptly that the early '90's had much more to offer than the overly-commercializedgrunge movement.

1995's See You on The Other Side was the introduction to the orchestrally- oriented side of Donahue's songwriting; a logical precursor to Deserter's Songs, with loads of great individual songs like the warping "Empire State," but lacking continuity.

Fade to present. . . it's 1998 and the band have done nothing short of evoving into the music-making machine of the future. The sugar plumb waltz-like "Tonite It Shows" drifts perfectly into the lullaby-tinted "Endlessly," which elicits an illusory auditory emission that takes finely-tuned ears to appreciate. The jazzy "Hudson Line" traffics into new music alterritory for the band, just as quickly as "Goddess on a Highway"provides a contrast, returning to the epic songcraft.

Mercury Rev provide the soundtrack of the year to a movie never made. All the better, I can choose to imagine my own film.

--- Bret Booth