Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They Are No Quirky Alternative Rock Band!!!, September 19, 2000
Alternative music sux! What in the world is alternative music? I have never understood the concept and will never understand it in the future. You call Oasis alternative, Alanis Moresette alternative, now you call Mercury Rev a quirky alternative rock band. What is the similarity between Mercury Rev and the other two? They have become big in the year 1998 with their latest offering `Deserted Songs',(at least among the critics) so you guys must be thinking, it must be another great alternative rock band right? And presumably, `Deserted Songs' is their best album right? Ok, let me tell you, you have made a grave mistake and deserve to be executed. Just check out their earlier `Boces' and this one, which I think is their classic. While `Boces' is noisier and more erratic, this one is diverse. Yes, its vision is much wider than that of `Deserted Songs', I agree with most people, `Deserted Songs' is great. The string arrangement, the exotic guitar effect, the experimental piano intro, it is their most romantic album to date. It can be melancholic and romantic at the same time without sounding anything along the line of saccharine divas. Yes, just like some of the R&B divas out there, soul music also influences the sound of Mercury Rev tremendously, so does progressive rock, ambient, jazz... Eclectic is the word, then again, thanks to most music critics, the word has become such a cliché. Anyway, if you think `Deserted Songs' is great, you have to check this out!!! Just listen to the atonal piano on the first track, as well as many other tracks, you can tell how different this band is. As the first track `Empire State...' proceeds, you can hear so much different instrumentation, everything could sound bloody out of place if another band did it. But on Mercury Rev's hands, everything fits perfectly well, "beautiful" some cry, wait, don't say this before you hear the noise which comes in at 2'30''. The noise sounds nothing like heavy metal, they have absolutely nothing to do with nasty heavy metal bands, the source of this white noise is from jazz, from bebop to be exact. The whole track lasts 7'29'', ambitious effort, but then again, it is absolutely diverse, so you can never get bored of it. `Young Man's Stride' is a punk song for Mercury Rev, for the imbecile bunch who devours trashy punk bands like Rancid and Green Day. Check this one out. As a contrast, to the punkish `Young Man's Stride', `Sudden Ray of Hope' is absolutely wonderful, yes, I admit, it gets noisy sometimes, but that's the pleasure you get when you listen to Mercury Rev's music. Your mood changes constantly, from happy to sad, from sad back to happy. Mercury Rev's music sounds pretty cheerful at first listen, but this is exactly the irony. They are in no way an optimistic bunch. One thing I have to mention is: the brass section on this track is splendid, you don't get to hear that often on another `alternative' band's record, do you? `Everlasting Arm' is an exquisite ballad, the distinctive atonal piano prevail. It could fit perfectly well with the rest of the songs on `Deserted Songs', well, this is even more beautiful than `Goddess On a Hiway', don't you think so? A bliss from start to end. `Racing the Tide' is yet another romantic yet anthemic track. `Close Encounter of the 3rd Grace' sounds not unlike a cross between `Come Together' on Primal Scream and Portishead's `Mysterons', while not as depressive as Portishead, this sounds even spookier, it sounds more like the ghosts are dancing happily. I really adore the part of lyrics on `A Kiss From An Old Flame', it goes something like this `Two fools rush in, you and I." Get it? The music is here at the album's most beautiful, really. Spooky as always, this one sounds even more cheerful. Not only ghosts dance to their music, even the angels come and join them on this track. Both angels and ghosts love their music, why don't you like this? That's the sole thing that has been puzzling me for ages. `Peaceful Night' is a lullaby, but it is one of the weirdest lullaby I have ever heard in my whole life, the way Jonathan sings, he sounds like he has just wet his pants and he is feeling very embarrassed. The way the piano is playing, not unlike those two instrumental tracks on `Deserted Songs'. That song brings an end to the album, even the aftertaste is great. You feel good after listening to their music, isn't that great or what? Sometimes I am thinking, why some great bands' average albums are the ones which brought them to fame? While the best album by them, the ones that should have been classics remain as hidden gem, or they are only discovered until later, it happened to REM's `Murmur' as well as Belle & Sebastian's `Tigermilk'. `See You On the Other Side' is Mercury Rev's best album, if you haven't heard anything from Mercury Rev, buy this one first, it is more traditional Mercury Rev than `Deserted Songs' and this is simply superior. The best thing is: This is NO ALTERNATIVE!!!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Addictive Album, December 30, 1999
I, unlike the other reviewer, see this as the best of the lot. Yerself has some moments(car wash hair! saw it live and it blew me away)and Boces has that one song(the first one)but this one has a flow and is consistently strong throughout. Sudden Ray of Hope gives off a warm feeling that one can rarely experience through sound. There are moments of Empire State and Young Man's that have more energy than a nuclear plant. Deserter's song was a great album as well but almost a little too sweet in places. This is the one for me and hopefully you will enjoy it as well. If you like this one try out the latest Flaming Lips.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Milestone of production and ecclecticism, January 27, 2001
By A Customer
This album is aural candy. Really. And there's no way Your Self Is Steam or Boces is better than this: not until Mercury Rev unburdened itself of Baker were they able to exploit the possibilities of their sound and, more importlantly, move it in a more mature and sophisticated direction. This is one of most incredible albums you'll ever hear--dare I say one of the greatest concept albums too. Empire State begins with our naive young protagonist going to the City for the first time. The music begins to generate some momentum and when the first brash burst of feed-back comes on you realize it's done in immitation of traffic. As the City approaches the sound gets thicker, louder, a little dangerous and at once hopeful and celebratory. That's hard to pull off, but they do it and they sustain it. Keep listening and maybe you'll sense a sort of impressionistic narrative full of allusions to Dark Side of the Moon (see the title). We even witness our protagonist lose his virginity: "I'm so close. I'm almost inside. It won't be long before the mystery is mine. I'm so close. I'm almost inside. But there's times I hung my head and cried." Beautiful and hilarious. See You On the Other Side is about coming of age. But concept aside the music is incredible, Fridman (not sure about my spelling here) has got to be one of the best producers out there (he did The Soft Bulletin, for those who don't know, and I hear he's doing the next Sparklehorse). One of the ultimate headphone albums. To be listened to with little to no expectations. The anti-alternative invective from the previous poster is really right on. This is just music: good music.
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by Mercury Rev 
