0088. Mercury Rev
Deserter's Songs
From this album I'd only heard Goddess On A Hiway and after listening to Deserter's Songs I get why it was the obvious first (and greatest) single. They've put a litte too much of their effort into being artsy. There are some tracks that pulls it off (I Collect Coins and the Untiteled instrumental at the end), but mostly it's just out of focus. Like on Holes, where the saw and the rhyming-for-rhymings-sake lyrics make the song sink like a rock and borrowing a couple of bars from a Christmas carol only gives Endlessly a bit more of a recognition-factor, but the quire battling it out with the saw (again with the saw-playing!) pushes the track down a notch.
And what the Hell were they thinking adding an eighties-style porno-saxophone and hair-metal soloist on Hudson Line? Okay, so I'll quit complaining now and just state that they had some good intentions which failed. But in Goddess On A Hiway they nailed it. It's the one song on the album where it all comes together due to leaving all the conceptual art behind and concentrating on making a song that will resonate (and also it's one of few songs where the singer, Jonathan Donahue, doesn't sound too much like his voice is changing).
