Mercury Rev : Secret Migration

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on the good side it includes the song in a funny way from the laurel canyon sountrack
on the bad side: the artwork

see what I mean:
http://www.mercuryrev.net/discography/discography.htm

― jb, Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:39 (twenty years ago)

Mercury Rev are on BBC Later: Fri 12th November

If only they ditched the vocalist with the funny voice.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:47 (twenty years ago)

i don't know if i have much use for another rev album.

i have a bad feeling that they may be settling into a pattern of making less interesting versions of "deserter's songs" rather than throwing us some surprises. perhaps i will be proved wrong.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:51 (twenty years ago)

I like the singer's voice, it suits their music well.

I'm not that into the record as a whole, but the first four songs are great. I especially love "Across Yer Ocean."

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:52 (twenty years ago)

what sort of record is it matthew? more in the same vein as "all is dream"?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, pretty much the same deal as All Is Dream and Deserter's Songs - rural epic pop stuff.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:54 (twenty years ago)

The best songs are in the same vein as "The Funny Bird," "Nite + Fog," "Holes," "Opus 40," and "Little Rhymes."

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Sure, that cover is kinda ugly, but all of their album covers are unattractive.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 15:59 (twenty years ago)

I like mind yerself is steam or dester's songs

laugh at the boces cover
dont mind the see you on the other side cover
wasnt crazy about all is dream
but GOD a hugh butter fly with human eyes on a purple background
just crosses the line where bands shouldnt make decisions on drugs

― jb, Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:10 (twenty years ago)

I want to hear this, actually.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:12 (twenty years ago)

You want to hear a huge butterfly with human eyes on a purple background?

Looks like someone else shouldn't be allowed to make decisions about drugs.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago)

Mercury Rev have been dull as fuck since 1998. Dullest band on the planet. "rural epic pop stuff" I can see what you mean, Matt, but they're just NOT POP in any way. There are no hooks anymore. "Sudden Ray Of Hope" is my favourite tune by them, I think.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:21 (twenty years ago)

The cover actually does suit the music on the album pretty well.

Sure they are pop. They write some catchy songs. "Delta Sun," "Holes," "Nite + Fog," "The Dark Is Rising," "Little Rhymes," and "Across Yer Ocean" are most certainly pop songs, even if they aren't particularly modern sounding.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:22 (twenty years ago)

For fuck's sake, man. "Opus 40" is a big old-fashioned sing along. Of course there are hooks.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:24 (twenty years ago)

I like EltonJohn/Spiders & Flies

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago)

There are few bands that I can think of whose music better captures where they are from than Mercury Rev. Those records are sooooooo very upstate New York.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:29 (twenty years ago)

mercury rev does capture the natural beauty of upstate new york (ala hudson school painters)
but the current rev dont catch the people/social life/culture of upstate lyrically(cept for nameing an album boces)
like pere ubu/rocket from the tombs did with industrial ohio or springsteen with jersey

― jb, Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:35 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's about right.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Thursday, 4 November 2004 16:45 (twenty years ago)

All their covers up to desrters songs were pretty fine actually.that is a hideous fundamentalist prog airbrush nightmare tho

― cw (cww), Thursday, 4 November 2004 17:03 (twenty years ago)

This isn't the first time I've heard post-98 Rev described as dull..I still can't quite fathom this, especially since they effortlessly tied in so many aspects (both modern and archaic) of music on Deserter's Songs...I can see that their style could weaken (as it did subtly on All Is Dream) even more with this release...However, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more beautifully written form of BLISS than "Holes"

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Thursday, 4 November 2004 18:55 (twenty years ago)

I still quite like mercury rev, in very small doses. Otherwise that voice just becomes totally repellent.

― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 4 November 2004 19:06 (twenty years ago)

...speaking of "Deserter's songs", is the guy on the cover about to do a bong hit? Just wondering.

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Thursday, 4 November 2004 19:46 (twenty years ago)

I don't get the hate. I like this band.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Friday, 5 November 2004 02:19 (twenty years ago)

They're more Woodstock/Catskills than plain ol upstate. Lots of Washington Irving and Opus 40.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the first for songs and probably the rest. But All is Dream did have some sore spots.

― danh (danh), Friday, 5 November 2004 03:21 (twenty years ago)

I don't think I understand this thread. Is there a new album out or is it just the usual carping?

(I heart Mercury Rev, all eras, so there.)

― Two-Headed Zombie With No Face (kate), Friday, 5 November 2004 11:41 (twenty years ago)

The link at the top says it is out January, but matthew Perpetua has a copy.

Pretty much like everything else, then!

― 3underscore (___), Friday, 5 November 2004 12:03 (twenty years ago)

..speaking of "Deserter's songs", is the guy on the cover about to do a bong hit? Just wondering.

uhhh.. i think he has a gun in his mouth?

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 5 November 2004 12:10 (twenty years ago)

Just look it up on slsk. That's how I got it.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 5 November 2004 12:51 (twenty years ago)

the worst thing about the cover is that font.

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 5 November 2004 12:58 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe ti took Kate this long. Internet connection or not, some threads get wired straight to her head.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 5 November 2004 14:56 (twenty years ago)

the worst thing about that cover is that styx would have dismissed it in 1976 for being too prog. it looks like the branding for some evil fundamentalist cult.

― cw (cww), Friday, 5 November 2004 15:08 (twenty years ago)

I can't get the link to load. Or, at least, not the cover.

I like the wallpaper, though.

― Two-Headed Zombie With No Face (kate), Friday, 5 November 2004 15:26 (twenty years ago)

OK, it just came up. I like the font, but that image is well and truly dire. Sigh. Upstate ate their brains.

― Two-Headed Zombie With No Face (kate), Friday, 5 November 2004 15:29 (twenty years ago)

That cover is atrocious. They must have got Billy Corgan in as art director or something.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 5 November 2004 15:36 (twenty years ago)

This is why albums are better without cover art. I didn't know what the cover looked like until four days after I heard the songs.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 5 November 2004 16:01 (twenty years ago)

It actually reminds of Price covers from the mid 90s. Like the Most Beautiful Girl in the World cover. Are there songs on the record about fucking tree nymphs and other tales of upstate woodland lust?

― danh (danh), Friday, 5 November 2004 16:20 (twenty years ago)

The Sap Is Rising

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 5 November 2004 16:32 (twenty years ago)

If anyone was curious, I've got "Across Yer Ocean" on the blog today.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 15:42 (twenty years ago)

I like about half this record. A lot. The rest are indeed songs about fucking tree nymphs or something...that same cloying sense of forced-wonder that scuppers (somewhat) late Flaming Lips for me. But the rest is indeed gorgeous, and I think better than (a bit less bombastic) "All Is Dream"

That one on Matthew's blog is nice.

― Dark Horse, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 16:57 (twenty years ago)

i think VERMILLION is particularly brilliant(ce)

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 21:41 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Man, this is really awful....did they lose their drug connection or something?

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Friday, 31 December 2004 17:58 (twenty years ago)

There's something really by-the-numbers about this record, which is preventing me from getting into it. I was hoping for more than "All Is Dream" outtakes.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 31 December 2004 18:17 (twenty years ago)

I saw them live a couple of months ago and the new stuff sounded really good. That said, they didn't play anything pre Deserters Songs which is when most of my favourite Rev stuff is from, I was just busting to hear the opening riff of Syringe Mouth. They do seem to have settled into a comfortable rut which I'm not sure I'm interested in anymore.

― holojames (holojames), Friday, 31 December 2004 20:01 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

"First-time mother's joy" is the greatest song of all time. Okay, the chorus is fairly by-numbers, but the ABSOLUTELY DIVINE harmonised vocal melody in the verse pretty much defines the need for music.

― , Wednesday, 26 January 2005 03:56 (twenty years ago)

I tried this record again last night. Maybe my attention span is shorter than when I was into _Deserter's Songs_ but I couldn't last more than the first verse/chorus of the first song and the spoken intro to the second. I should give the rest of the tracks a chance though. Something Joyce Carol Oates wrote has been sticking in my head, the idea that there is so much music to consume in the world, that if something doesn't grab you within the first minute or so, you should move on.

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

in the brian eno book, he talks about bowie buying a stack of 20-30 of the newest talked-about records, and they would put them on in the studio, and if they weren't immediately hooked, it went in the trash.

oddly enough, if i had played by those rules, i would never have listened to eno again...

― the leglo (the leglo), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

it feels a bit more lively and less bombastic than the last one, but by crikey there's nothing in the way of a departure here. it doesn't seem like there's been any change or growth in the songwriting over these last three albums.

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Monday, 31 January 2005 06:07 (twenty years ago)

I heard 2/3 of this in a shop earlier. Seems like a very serious rut indeed! The only progression I could detect since the last one (on an admittedly cursory listen) was perhaps a little added blandness!

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 31 January 2005 07:14 (twenty years ago)

OH MY GOD NO ONE ON PITCHFORK EVER PLAYED D&D.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/mercury-rev/secret-migration.shtml

Someone should chart the default insults critics like.

― houston baker, Thursday, 3 February 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

"Look, I'm a cool guy, I listen to indie rock. I don't have time for faggy fairy tale bullshit."

― the wit and wizard, Thursday, 3 February 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Who's heard the bonus disc? Is the special edition worth getting?

― John Davis, Sunday, 22 May 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

fifteen years pass...

So which of you here popped for the FIVE CD BOX SET of this album (that, admittedly, I have always kind of liked)?

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/mercury-rev-the-secret-migration-5cd-deluxe-edition/

― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 10 December 2020 05:17 (four years ago)

Ew!

― Cow_Art, Thursday, 10 December 2020 16:41 (four years ago)

Huh, apparently they also did a 4CD All Is Dream set at some point. Secret Migration is where I got fully off board, but I'd be curious to hear the Dream set if i can find a cheap used copy

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 10 December 2020 17:13 (four years ago)

Hot take: this album is better than Deserters’ Songs. It def. has more high points.

I like All Is Dream as well.

― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 10 December 2020 21:29 (four years ago)

If only they ditched the vocalist with the funny voice.

― DJ Martian (djmartian)

― chap, Thursday, 10 December 2020 21:52 (four years ago)

I always thought Snowflake Midnight was by the far the best thing they did after 1998, even if no one else did

― PaulTMA, Thursday, 10 December 2020 22:15 (four years ago)

Yeah, Snowflake Midnight is great.

― screator, Friday, 11 December 2020 04:23 (four years ago)

Re-listening to Secret Migration, you can understand why it may have been off-putting to some in the wake of All Is Dream and Deserter's Songs -- it's a really peculiar record that trades Americana, musical saws and Catskills mysticism for prog, classic pop and prancing fairies. The thing is, I think I kind of prefer this. Where Deserter's Songs was frustratingly underwritten, the melodies here are crisp and the songs are more fully fleshed out. The arrangements are more atmospheric and ambient than sweeping and orchestral -- and in an interesting twist, the rhythm section propels most of the songs in a way that strangely recalls the free-wheeling explosiveness of Yerself Is Steam.

Do I want 5 discs of it? Probably not. But it's a really interesting--and underrated--record.

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 11 December 2020 15:36 (four years ago)

Also: Diamonds is one of their best songs. Perfect listening for the December nor’easter that just blew threw New England.

― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:55 (four years ago)

one month passes...

Came across this recently, apparently from a Sparklehorse tribute album that got scrapped. A nice for their sound imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fifKrgE9hBo

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Saturday, 30 January 2021 16:59 (four years ago)

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