Mercury Rev: Snowflake Midnight

What kind of a new direction?

what an adorable title.

drum machines, tape edits etc. Still very moody and atmospheric, but some of it's actually danceable.

The title is self-parody. As are IIRC many of the songtitles.

It's no new direction. It continues their downward slide.

I finally warmed up to All Is Dream. I think I can brave the atrocious cover art of the 2006 follow-up and give that a try now.

Jacobo, what about the new one makes it worse?

Keep in mind I've built up a tolerance to traditionally overblown prog like ELP, even post Brain Salad stuff, and later Yes (until 90125). (Not strong enough for Utopia or Uriah Heep yet.)

Does it have "Car Wash Hair" on it?

Mackro, you may be right that one's enjoyment of the album may depend on one's enjoyment for overblown prog. But, then again, I like ELP and Snowflake Midnight feels more like a bad parody of overblown prog. The spoken interlude on Runaway Raindrop is one of the worst things I've heard this year ("No more running, no more becoming/It takes a flake to know one and here you are/On the edge of yourself and ready to leap/Built to last only as long as snow upon the sea"). The entire album's embarrassing.

I think I can brave the atrocious cover art of the 2006 follow-up and give that a try now.

Good luck with that. I listened to that fucking thing 10 times in a row and only the first song stayed with me. The rest were like 4th-rate All Is Dream outtakes.

("No more running, no more becoming/It takes a flake to know one and here you are

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

even their supposed genius album "Deserter's Songs" was a piece of shit, imho

i umm...i like this new album. especially "butterfly's wing"

best song on the last one was "Vermillion" by a country mile.

not really too excited about this new one... but i'd love to be pleasantly surprised!

i will listen, it's a good time for some new Mercury Rev!

I like me some ridiculous overblown prog with a sense of self parody. I shall bite.

danceable???
wow. this i must hear.

their supposed (wait, no, their ACTUAL) genius albums are the first two (maybe three), not deserter's songs, which is pretty shite, yes

i might hear this

Oh, I love Deserter's Songs. Much more than Boces or Yerself is Steam. But I guess everything that's awful about Snowflake Midnight first appeared there.

Aw c'mon offed 'holes' is wonderful

individual songs from Deserter's Songs are quite good, such as Holes or Tonite It Shows but listening to the whole album is like trying to eat nothing but meringues for a week

i like up to (and including) All Is Dream. Not heard the new one.

At the time, DS seemed like a logical step in the Rev's evolution, Donahue having taken the helm & building on the likes of "Empire State" & "Everlasting Arm." I still love that record as much as the three before it, but they've been stuck in a rut since. Perhaps it is unfair to expect our favorite artists, even ones as sonically adventurous as MR were in earlier incarnations, to constantly evolve. But if they were going to plateau, I would have much rather they plateaued at See You on the Other Side.

I'll give this new one a chance, but things don't look very promising. Has anyone heard it, aside from Jacobo & ijustpop?

First four tracks on All Is Dream better than anything on Deserter's IMO. Album subsequently takes a regrettable dive.

The entire album's embarrassing.

Sadly true. It's not that the music and production are necessarily the issue, but Donahue's lyrics and especially his vocals really kill this album for me. But then again, his vocals are probably the only thing remotely Mercury Rev about the entire project. Hire some guest vocalist(s) and call it a side project next time.

And I think I'd rather be dead than ever see this album performed live.

his lyrics typically are shite. hoollleees, duugg by litttle mohhles!!!

give me a break.

I might go see them live cause they're playing soon very near me. That being said, I've never much cared for the live arrangements they have for a lot of their songs, especially Deserters stuff. Haven't heard the new album. Based on the last two, I'd expect a few standouts and a lot of dreariness.

X-post.

At least then his voice at least fit some of the atmospherics the music was going for.

Snowflake Midnight is like some horrible mega-bastard son of The Postal Service or something. It's god-awful.

Does he go overboard with the falsetto or what?

It's his typical lyrics and vocals, but the music is high BPM electronic dance with Donahue doing his best Tracy Thorn over top. The only listenable tracks are the ones that distort his voice as much as possible, or the rare times he drops the falsetto.

what's with that falsetto anyway? it's so distracting and unappealing to listen to.

i dunno, i haven't been a huge fan of the last couple records, but i'd definitely go see them play live. never seen a bad show by them, and donahue is always kind of funny. think they're touring with dean & britta soon, so maybe we'll get wareham guesting on car wash hair ...

This title makes me think it's the type of album that's playing in some lame new agey store filled with incense and Buddha statues, where there's some long-haired dude with glassy, unfocused eyes who calls himself Rainbow Starfire trying to sell me on some 'really great power crystals, bro!'

Christ, this is BAD.

What did you expect? This once great band has been almost entirely dogshit for over a decade.

And I seriously loved those first two records.

I might go see them live cause they're playing soon very near me. That being said, I've never much cared for the live arrangements they have for a lot of their songs, especially Deserters stuff

see, it was only when i read this comment that i actually remembered i'd been to see them live. paid for it and everything. holy shit, they were dull. and i think that was the experience that put me off them for a long, long time ... mrs F will occasionally put something on from the iPod on long car journeys, but they're a band i tend to look back at now and think: what did i really see in them?

this new stuff sounds like it could be fascinating, but matt DC's response does act as a bloody great warning siren to me ;)

I saw them on acid in 2002...the sky pulsed red behind their posturing overblown gestures and I sorted my entire life out.

I wanted this album to be good but have heard bad things.

I sorted my entire life out.

did this newly-found order sustain itself into the following days and years?

no sadly not...17 minutes afterwards I reckon I needed an e

It's a shame that the answers aren't so easy... but surely an album with a title like "Snowflake Midnight" is a zen-like meditation on consciousness that quietly reveals the secrets of the cosmos with every play

They were interviewed on NPR today, mostly about the collaborative software they used to create the album. The process sounded interesting; the clips they played were not. I also turned it off when Andrea Seabrook -- who yesterday confessed to Flea that Blood Sugar Sex Magik was the soundtrack to her freshman year of college -- said that Mercury Rev, in their never-ending quest for "new experiences," was the Hunter S. Thompson of music.

what the fuck does that even mean?

i mean, i get it, but come on.

One of the last bands I would have expected to get remixed by James Holden

This is the first time MR has released a new record and I'm not willing to even investigate it. I'm not usually one to be swayed by the opinions of others, if the object of discussion is something I'm genuinely interested in, but I'll make an exception in this case b/c indicate that this just more of the same shit. Why risk heartbreak all over again? If this seems excessive, please consider that Rev were, like, my total fucking heroes up until they decided to go all Enya-prog on everybody.

"b/c indicate" = "b/c yr early reports indicate"

did you guys notice that they released another new album at the same time as this one, and you can download it free off their website?

another album to ignore!

the more I read the more I reckon I'm going to like this...

One of the last bands I would have expected to get remixed by James Holden

Haha really? They both have an equally sappy aesthetic.

I listened to Deserter's Songs again at the weekend, expecting to hate it now, seeing as I don't like any subsequent Mercury Rev records or indeed anything else in this vein and, no, it's still great. There's an intimacy to the sound that's absent in everything that followed, but that's what ultimately makes the album.

I've liked everything I've heard on this so far.

There was a live concert of theirs broadcast (I think live) on France Inter a week or two back, mostly featuring the new material, and it sounded magnificent.

I think I'll be getting this one - shaping up to be their best since See You On The Other Side IMO.

did you guys notice that they released another new album at the same time as this one, and you can download it free off their website?

hurray. the return of the 'free ambient album' trick that several people back in the 90s tried (malcolm mclaren/chapterhouse .. umm ?).
3 tracks into this, and no vocals, just lots of beautifully produced laid back music with laptop beats and synths, and very nice it is too.

Never really got into MR-albums as much as See you on the other side (some bastard stole that one out of my car, joined by GbV's Under the Bushes...'. Oh, the things in life to cope with). But i liked this one a lot!

3 tracks into this, and no vocals, just lots of beautifully produced laid back music with laptop beats and synths, and very nice it is too.

I'll have to check this disc out. As I said earlier, the main problem I have with Snowflake Midnight is Donahue.

A year later, I finally got around to listening to this. (bless Spotify in oh so many ways, they're forgiven their Tory ads.)

As predicted, I like this LOADS AND LOADS - probably the best thing they've done since Deserters Songs. (though I never hated on that album like lots of other Yrself era fans) But then again, bear in mind, I LOVE overblown prog. I'm kind of their target audience, really.

Donahue's voice is really one of those... not even so much love it or hate it, but hate it or just kind of ignore it. There are places where it kinda works - I can't really imagine anyone else singing on this. I kinda file him under Jon Anderson on that regard.

Seems to me to be more influenced by the kind of nu-gaze-tronica that's been floating around the past few years, rather than out and out "DANCE" music. (Except of course, for Lindstrom's proggier moments.) It totally makes sense in terms of Mercury Rev's aesthetic - they're a prog band, so why shouldn't they turn to electronic Tangerine Dream/Vangelis type stuff?

Now I gotta try to find that free ambient album, because this minus vocals would be the best thing evah.