Customer Reviews

Mercury

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Manchester has churned out some of the best Britpop bands in history: The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Elbow, Joy Division and the Doves. It's not easy to follow in enormous footsteps like those, but with their debut "Mercury," the new band Long-View seems to be giving it a good go.

Only time will tell if Long-View will reach the same artistic heights. But their panorama-rock is certainly a solid listen, with their hints of shoegazer pop and detached vocals. It hints at other bands -- the Verve, Embrace and Travis among them -- in the Brit-rock listings. Fortunately these influences don't stick out like sore thumbs.

The expansive intro "Further" is an epic, uplifting rocker, with a semi-religious finale ("God's love will save our sun and thy will be done"). It reminded me of a guitar-driven sibling of Muse. Sadly the grittier songs that follow are not nearly as thrilling. But at least they stand on their own as pretty good rock songs, with hints of those panoramic heights.

With repeated listens, it actually comes to mind that... well, maybe the seemingly lesser songs are actually better than "Further." Certainly they are more complex: A driving riff here, a subtle piano solo there, a soaring ballad fuelled just by percussion and a chiming guitar, a hint of strings, and a distinctly jazzy stretch of drumming.

Rob McVey has a smooth, fairly powerful voice, which he puts to good use in the angsty songs. Fortunately he doesn't fall into the trap of getting melodramatic -- he sounds moody, but not like he's about to jump off a skyscraper. With that, you can actually ignore the blander lyrical sentiments that he sings ("You don't know what you do to me/and I know I don't want to be"). The songs grow progressively stronger as "Mercury" goes on ("I'd never light up your eyes like they should/but I'd stay for you"), giving glimpses of the life they've all lived.

These Manchester lads aren't quite up to the level of their fellows yet, but "Mercury" is a solid, listenable rock album with some moments of true beauty. Definitely worth checking out.

Manchester has churned out some of the best Britpop bands in history: The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Elbow, Joy Division and the Doves. It's not easy to follow in enormous footsteps like those, but with their debut "Mercury," the new band Long-View seems to be giving it a good go.

Only time will tell if Long-View will reach the same artistic heights. But their panorama-rock is certainly a solid listen, with their hints of shoegazer pop and detached vocals. It hints at other bands -- the Verve, Embrace and Travis among them -- in the Brit-rock listings. Fortunately these influences don't stick out like sore thumbs.

The expansive intro "Further" is an epic, uplifting rocker, with a semi-religious finale ("God's love will save our sun and thy will be done"). It reminded me of a guitar-driven sibling of Muse. Sadly the grittier songs that follow are not nearly as thrilling. But at least they stand on their own as pretty good rock songs, with hints of those panoramic heights.

With repeated listens, it actually comes to mind that... well, maybe the seemingly lesser songs are actually better than "Further." Certainly they are more complex: A driving riff here, a subtle piano solo there, a soaring ballad fuelled just by percussion and a chiming guitar, a hint of strings, and a distinctly jazzy stretch of drumming.

Rob McVey has a smooth, fairly powerful voice, which he puts to good use in the angsty songs. Fortunately he doesn't fall into the trap of getting melodramatic -- he sounds moody, but not like he's about to jump off a skyscraper. With that, you can actually ignore the blander lyrical sentiments that he sings ("You don't know what you do to me/and I know I don't want to be"). The songs grow progressively stronger as "Mercury" goes on ("I'd never light up your eyes like they should/but I'd stay for you"), giving glimpses of the life they've all lived.

These Manchester lads aren't quite up to the level of their fellows yet, but "Mercury" is a solid, listenable rock album with some moments of true beauty. Definitely worth checking out.

I bought this album on a wing and a prayer, following hearing 'Further' on Q TV, and becoming instantly addicted to the mellow guitaring and vocaling, strongly remeniscent of songs such as Iris (Goo Goo Dolls).
They do not disappoint in length - it is a sufficiently long CD with some brilliant tracks. Many brilliant tracks in fact!
Ones especially worthy of note are:

Further (10/10) - A truely superb track, I can't get it out of my head
Can't Explain (10) - Another truely brilliant track with a very nice acoustic guitar opening
Electricity - My personal favourite. The mellow vocals combine brilliantly with the haunting instruments.

My only true critism of this album is the lack of ambition in the singer's vocal range. He has a lovely haunting voice, but often it sounds ocassionally monotonous, which leads to some of the songs sounding 'samey'
Nevertheless, a brilliant album to buy and listen to.

Long View's debut is a commercially appealing album with several "breakthrough" moments of riveting, beautiful tunes. These guys can definitely write and develop magnificent music, as evidenced by songs such as "Further," "Can't Explain," "I Would," "One More Try," "If You Asked," and "Will You Wait Here." For me, these tracks carry the best moments of this album, the ones that reveal this band's fundamental talent in crafting polished yet affective tunes. Long View's lead singer, Rob McVey, appreciably blows with an enchanting, smooth voice, one that blends perfectly with the ethereal guitar-and-piano-based ensemble supporting him.

Having said that, Long View seems to counter each of its stellar tracks with a lackluster effort. Indeed, of the twelve songs on this album, I love six of them, but I could really do without the other six, providing a perfect split of the memorable vs. the forgettable. I find the weaker songs on the album to be repetitive and generic, offering little to no reward for the listener.

Adding it all together, however, Long View has clearly displayed the potential to put out some great music, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they produce in the future.

I'm a big big fan of all rock/indie/alternative music from the 70's to present day, but I have to admit this is truly a unique and fabulous debut album. I first saw this band's song and video 'Futher' on Sky T.V's channel 'The Amp'. Before this, Longview did not exist to me. But, as soon as I heard their song 'Further' I new this band were special. I decided to purchase the album 'Mercury' just because of that song! Boy... was I not dissapointed!

This album, in my opinion, is one of the best debut albums to come out of a British band in a long while. There's not one bad song on the album which you have to skip. Lead vocalist, Rob McVey, has a unique voice, at times similar to Coldplay's Chris Martin. Yet I have not found a band to compare them with! The sound of the aching guitar soothes through every track and the added piano on some songs just about completes what can only be described as Breathtaking. Every drum beat, guitar riff, and so on, makes this band hard not to like.

The only problem is, I am in danger of playing this album too much!

Certainly won't be a waste of money for any fan of decent music! 10/10 - Keep up the good work!

Pretty much if you like coldplay, starsailor, and athlete you will love this cd. Great lyrics, great drummer, great vocals. This band should be bigger.

This record has been out a while in the UK. We have been hearing about this Manchester band for a long time. They have been playing for over three years. It's been worth the wait. The first song "Further" introduce their brand of universal rock to our shores. With Coldplay and Snow Patrol doing well here, it's no wonder that Long-View have been thrust upon the crowded scene. They are playing SXSW in March 2005 and doing a tour with Dogs Doe in Hot Cars. Some of the songs like "When You Sleep" and "In A Dream" have a more aggressive sound that suggest some of the shoegazer bands. "Still" is an amazing song that sends shivers through my body. It promises "Good times are coming." This band definitely has what it takes to find an audience. It sounds sincere. They may be for this year what bands like Snow Patrol and Keane were last year. This may be one of the great records that we are still talking about in six months.

So, I'm super late to the party with this one but glad I finally arrived. This is one of those "if you could only take (insert number here) discs to a desert island" releases. Easily one of my favorites and one I never get tired of. The only song that slightly misses with me is "In A Dream" and I'm not even saying that it isn't good, it's just not as good as the rest...if that makes sense. Another must-have as far as I'm concerned.

buy it if you like soft-rock with simple melodies and distorted guitars. Actually it's better than how I just wrote that, buy it.

If I remember correctly I was listening to my Band of Horses station on Pandora; heard a track by Long-View; and was instantly hooked! What I usually do when that happens is go to Amazon and look for reviews on the band and then buy the cd...so glad I purchased Mercury!!! Listened to it in it's entirety at the gym and loved every single track...how often does that happen? I am a huge fan of the Shoegaze scene and this band has just enough of that element to make me want to sway back and forth and stare at my shoes...I must admit, some of the songs teeter on the corny side (I suppose that's the Pop influence)and I can definitely see them on an OC or One Tree Hill soundtrack, but the songs have just enough droning guitar or catchy hook to suck me in. I realize that Mercury is not a new cd but it's new to me and one of my favorites right now :-)