All Is Dream [Import]

Mercury Rev | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 3, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: V2
• ASIN: B00005NB3G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #954,945 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Dark Is Rising

2. Tides of the Moon

3. Chains

4. Lincoln's Eyes

5. Nite and Fog

6. Little Rhymes

7. A Drop in Time

8. You're My Queen

9. Spiders and Flies

10. Hercules

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

All Is Dream is Mercury Rev's most fully realized album yet, the ideal follow-up to its predecessor, 1998's acclaimed Deserter's Songs. Like Deserter's, All Is Dream replaces the experimental leanings and noisy guitar wig-outs that marked their early work (especially Yerself Is Steam) with the more subdued (and, arguably, mature) sounds of strings, Mellotrons, and woodwinds. This time, however, their sound has expanded even further, racing to catch up to the band's considerable imaginations. All Is Dream is an album of sobering beauty, boasting layers of lush orchestration that lend a dream-like atmosphere to the proceedings and an epic scope to the songs. Album opener "The Dark Is Rising" starts with a swirl of strings like the beginning of some grand Hollywood melodrama before moving to a simple piano accompaniment, then explodes again into more strings and a chorus of female sopranos. Like dreams themselves, the songs range from the fantastic ("Nite and Fog") and the inspiring ("A Drop In Time") to the downright creepy ("Lincoln's Eyes"), yet all are tethered to reality by the reassuring vocals of frontman Jonathan Donahue. In another decade, All Is Dream would have been considered a "concept album"; for now, suffice to say that it is an album to be savored and appreciated as a whole, for years to come. --Robert Burrow

Product Description

Mercury Rev dismantles the classic definition of a rock band. Members of this collective music project have retained separate, independent lives, convening periodically to record majestic sound collages--truly brilliant pieces of art-rock that pilfer as much from Pink Floyd's progressive psychedelia as they do from Phil Spector's grand, intricate production techniques. ALL IS DREAM is vintage Mercury Rev. The proper sequel to 1998's DESERTER'S SONGS comes off as another epic soundtrack to a movie never made--a collection of musical scenes scraped from the subconscious that is best heard continuously from start to finish. The sonic flow is so seamless that no one song stands out, yet each is unique. "Nite and Fog" combines meandering keyboards with a soft, gorgeous backdrop of string accompaniment, while "Tides of the Moon" is driven by a thick, walking bass line and ghostly musical saw. Impressively, the album maintains a cohesive quality despite the vast instrumental diversity displayed from track to track. Held together by waves of orchestral outbursts and vocalist Jonathan Donahue's strangely comforting, child-like vocal style, ALL IS DREAM is a symphonic-psychedelic meditation of the highest order.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All is Dreamy, May 17, 2005

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All Is Dream (Audio CD)

There's always been a sort of fantastical edge to Mercury Rev, even in the bleak grandeur of "Deserter's Songs." But "All Is Dream" takes that edge and pushes it, with its swirling music and songs that talk about dreams, vampires, nite and fog, and "floating in the tides of the moon." It's too subdued to be their best work, but it's certainly still good.

"I always dreamed of big crowds/plumes of smoke and high clouds/But dreams don't last for long," Jonathan Donahue sings wistfully at the start of "The Dark is Rising," a plaintive meditation on how reality and dreams differ. A gentle piano melody swells into orchestral strings, before subsiding back into piano and violin.

That sets the tone for the rest of "All Is Dream," with its plaintive, pretty pop that explodes suddenly into orchestral splendor or fast-driving rock. Soft female voices call out, eerie noises sound, and catchy rhythms are tempered with thick layers of strings, synth and otherworldly lyrics. It sounds like the soundtrack to a very good action-fantasy movie.

They do break from type here and there -- "The Distance From Her To Me" is an almost unbearably cute-sounding pop song, and "Tides of the Moon" is a dark, synthy ballad, where Donahue sounds like a friendly ghost narrating a nightmare. "With prickly little thorns/sharp tiny teeth/they're hungry for the threads/hanging from your sleeve..."

"Deserters' Song" is considered the peak of Mercury Rev's career, and "All Is Dream" is not quite the same. It's more fantastical, less epic, less mind-blowing, and it's positively happy beside its sister album. It's also a bit more peaceful, with moments of yearning and fear, but overall more contemplative.

Jonathan Donahue has a rather unmelodious voice, high and a bit weird-sounding. However, it grows on you. Especially when it's paired with the music here -- strings, mellotron, hammond and French horn all spice up the sprawling rock melodies, which would sound rather bleak and underworked otherwise.

The songwriting is one of the things that had definitely changed from "Deserters' Songs." It has that Ye Olde Rocke'n'Rolle sound, a sort of fantasy vibe, with mentions of entombed pharoahs screaming and "the sun's red gown turns to brown." Despite, I might add, the mention of Leonard Cohen, which I don't really understand.

Mercury Rev's "All Is Dream" is an appropriate title. It does sound like a dream -- a long, wandering, dark and strange dream.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex and fascinating, January 6, 2002

By 

Stephen Doig (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Is Dream (Audio CD)

In 1998 Mercury Rev suprised the music world with Deserter's Songs - it was a great album that topped the critic's polls and remained atop my CD pile. The good news is, with perseverance, All Is Dream is an even better, more cohesive record. At first listen All Is Dream did not impress me and on 'Lincoln's Eyes' even repelled me, but by about my fourth listen I was enthralled - I guess the crux of this review is that if you stick with it - the rewards are bountiful. The opener 'The Dark Is Rising' sets the tone of All Is Dream wonderfully, balancing Jonathan Donahue's piano and touchingly inadequate voice against crashing waves of orchestration in an oddly beautiful beginning. 'Chains' is a thrilling song, all purpose and urgency, while 'Nite and Fog' with it's opening couplet "If God moves across the water, then the girl moves in other ways" blows me away every time - more than once during this song has the thought struck me that the Rev are moving on a markedly different plane to other groups. There is a charming naivete to 'Little Rhymes' - it sounds a little inconsequential at first listen, but is in fact quite a moving song far greater than the sum of it's parts; likewise 'You're My Queen' with it's swooning arrangement. For me, listening to All Is Dream is rather like looking at a Dali painting - a surreal experience charged with nightmarish visions and paranoia, but also, and importantly, real beauty.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and on a par with Deserter's Songs, September 27, 2001

By 

Karina (MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Is Dream (Audio CD)

I found myself actually adjusting to this album faster than I did to Deserter's Songs. By this time I've become accustomed to Rev, and it was easier to get through initially disorienting songs such as "Lincoln's Eyes," "Little Rhymes," and "Hercules."

In the end, all of the songs have captivating features. The only one I still don't like is "Spiders and Flies" -- I don't think Jonathon Donahue's voice was at its best with this song, and the piano melody is just kind of flat.

That said, here's what is so great about this album:
-- Donahue's voice is getting more 'mature' - well, he's probably in his thirties, so this isn't really the right term. But it has less of the squeaky awkwardness with which Deserter's Songs usually scored and sometimes faltered. There's a smoothness to All Is Dream's vocals that feels like a proper evolution from their previous album. It's tinged with that creakiness where it needs to be for emotion. Like on Lincoln's Eyes -- good segue to the next item...
-- "Lincoln's Eyes" - The fact that this album, with this song, was released on September 11th is still creepy in a coincidental way. The pitch and lyrics of the piece are at times haunting, with an unmajestic, detached beauty. This was mentioned in previous reviews.
-- The refrains in songs like "Chains," "A Drop in Time," "Nite and Fog," and "Hercules" are delicious. Sorry I can't articulate it any better. They just are, & that's one of the reasons I'm still smitten with this album.

I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who isn't very acquainted with Rev's earlier stuff such as Boces. I think their progress on this album was positive -- others may disagree with the direction they're taking.