Albums by this artist

Deserter's Songs (1998)

Mercury Rev

Deserter's Songs

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» BRADLEY SMITH | STAFF WRITER

Mercury Rev Deserter's Songs V2, 1998 RiYL: Flaming Lips, Pulp, Wheat, Spiritualized

Mercury Rev almost seems more European than American. The band has consistently enjoyed more success overseas, its albums are often released in Europe prior to the U.S., and they frequently place quite high on year-end polls in the European press.

Yet, with its fourth release, Deserter's Songs, Mercury Rev presents a highly personal look at America and the American dream, characterized by movement and change.

The movement from cities to the untamed West has driven Americans for centuries, and this same idea permeates Deserter's Songs. The songs are populated with highways, trains, and cars -- all express an urgent need to escape, and it's this longing that gives the songs life. This desire is most clear in "Hudson Line": "Gonna leave th' city,gonna hop a train tonite / Gotta one-way ticket an' th' moon is shinin' bright / Gonna leave th' city, gonna catch th' Hudson Line / Cos y'know i love th' city but i haven't got th' time."

But there's a deeper, more interesting idea couched in these songs. Popular opinion states that Americana is most clearly expressed in music driven by banjos, fiddles, and other acoustic instruments. And today, the bands considered most American are those playing a folk-country mix, such as Son Volt and Whiskeytown. But this narrow view completely ignores another rich American musical tradition embodied in the music of George Gerswhin and Cole Porter. These are two equally viable visions of America, and in the past have been equally popular.

To see this, one need only look to two of the early century's most gifted songwriters, both from Indiana: Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. On one hand is the lazy, rural music of Carmicheal and on the other the sophisticated, urban songs of Porter. But today, the Porter side is not seen as "purely American" as music from the Carmichael side. If you want American music, you listen to country.

Mercury Rev realizes that America is more than just a banjo and it's obvious in the music, especially in the final track, "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp." It's a complex mixture of rural and urban ideals, jazzy piano riffs and country guitar, all pushed to the max by a relentless drumbeat. And the lyric is equally brilliant: "Kickin' up th' dust constructin' new ideals / Old ones laid t' rust, nothin' seems so real..."

It's America, taking the old and making it better, making it your own. It's what Mercury Rev is doing on this entire album and it's amazing.

BRADLEY SMITH |