You're where you should be

With each album they release, Mercury Rev move further away from the sound of their breakthrough album ‘Deserter’s Songs’

The alt country feel ebbing away as their more psychedelic space rock tendencies take over.

It’s not so much an evolution or experimentation as a progression. A natural move. Guitars taking a backseat while waves of keyboards move to the fore. The result is a much more spectral, ethereal sound. One that, added to Jonathon Donohue’s Neil Young on helium vocals and lyrics that often hover close to the mystical, can’t help but call to mind some kind of elvish house band. The kind of thing that wouldn’t seem too out of place at a party round at Tolkien’s. How you feel about that progression will ultimately depend on how much time you’re willing to devote to the band.

For the main problem with 'Snowflake Midnight' is not to do with the quality of the song writing, more with the style of it. You’d be forgiven for thinking Zero 7 had gotten their grubby mits on the master tape and remixed the whole thing. Such is the ambient nature of these nine songs that at points it verges close to the territory of a chill out mix. Inconspicuous. Unobtrusive. Designed to match the wallpaper at a dinner party. And ultimately, that makes it incredibly easy to become distracted from. Without realising it, tracks can pass you by. The haze of keyboards that swirl around each track seemingly merging into the next. Songs pass you by without much to distinguish them. Individual songs all but lost in the textured layers that oscillate around the speakers. To say that maximum concentration is needed for this record would not be an understatement.

But stick with it and 'Snowflake Midnight' does eventually reveal more. Songs begin to develop and blossom. Repeated listens bringing the structure and intricacies into focus. Drum beats and electronic pulses come forward from the ether. Guitar lines become more obvious and prominent, breaking through the woozy fog of keys. I'm tempted to say that it's almost too pretty. But an unreal kind of beauty. Like a child's fairytale. Or a photo taken through a vaseline smeared lens. Hidden beneath the swirling mists of glistening sonic psychedelia is a pretty good record. Whether you're willing to put in the effort needed to hear it, is an entirely different matter.

'Snowflake Midnight' is available to buy now while it's sister album, 'Strange Attractor' is available as a free download when you sign up to the mailing list.

Mercury Rev - snowflake in a hot world/october sunshine (live session version) original versions available on 'Snowflake Midnight'

mp3 / music / mercury rev