Mercury Rev - 'The Secret Migration' (V2)
3/5
By: Clara Burtenshaw
The amethyst purple artwork with its psychedelic human-butterfly perfectly sets the tone for Mercury Rev's sixth album, which marks a new direction for a band whose floaty, ephemeral anthems and helium-assisted vocals distinguishes and bars them from comparison.
The part away with the fairies, part product of LSD-fuelled imaginings notion is inimitably still there, but where previous albums could perhaps be ostrasised for the indomitable sublimity of mythical soundscapes, beautiful and stirring yet lacking a feasible
connection with the real world, 'The Secret Migration' grapples with direct, tangible issues by the horns and is perhaps the most personal work that Jonathon Donahue has written to date.
And such openness is evident in the stripping down of the Rev sound: the epic orchestral arrangements, which seemed to lose the band in the labyrinth world they had conjured up, are all gone. 'Secret For A Song' and 'Vermillion' are still ashamedly Mercury Rev, but pared down to just band, synths and Donohue's fey, vulnerable and utterly arresting vocals.
Seen as a concept album replete with earthen imagery and rapt with swooning melodies and percussion, the LP should be played all in one go, but proves to be an almost hallucinogenic experience. But then again, haven't all Mercury Rev Albums been a trip and a half?
Artists in this article: Mercury Rev
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