MERCURY REV - Snowflake Midnight

In the age of the internet, it's all too easy to write an artist off as finished. The paradox is that despite the (apparent) democracy a medium like the web provides, people always end up declaring a band artistically dead at its first misstep, swept up in the frenzy and overabundance of music available online and falling in line with the pans. Unfortunately, this is also the case with Mercury Rev, who reached the top of the world in 2001 with the fine "All Is Dream", acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, but soon fell into obscurity due to the band's mismanagement of their own success; unable to keep pace with the internet revolution, Mercury Rev waited four years to follow it up (the mediocre "The Secret Migration"), and it's easy to imagine how such a disappointing record was greeted by many former fans as the definitive epitaph of a band that had run its course.

Controversy aside, "Snowflake Midnight" is, without mincing words, their best record since "Deserter's Songs", and proof of the rebirth of a band of shapeshifters never content to rest on their achievements and always ready to put themselves on the line again. Anyone who harbored doubts about their orchestral-pop drift of recent years will have to think again in the face of a thoroughly original and distinctive record, in which Mercury Rev reinvigorate the dreamlike atmospheres that have defined them over the past decade with a musical structure that ventures into territory they'd never explored before: electronic rhythms. "Snowflake Midnight" is built on a psychedelic, epic and powerful dream-pop, drenched in ethereal keyboards and propped up by synthetic beats, creating an amalgam similar to the shoegaze/synth-pop of latter-day M83, with whom they share a devastating charge in tracks that sweep you along while remaining velvety and enveloping on the surface; the differences from the past are plain to see: their previous formula was layered but slow and static, whereas here dynamism reigns supreme, with unexpected scene changes and surges of distortion, keyboards and orchestration.

The opening track "Snowflake in a Hot World" is the manifesto of this record, a fluttering, fragile yet explosive piece, with a pulsing bass undercurrent driving an unstoppable charge forward; "Butterfly's Wing" is calmer, made up of echoing sounds, an almost dance rhythm, samples, and Donahue's voice sounding more childlike and sweet than ever. Applause for the electronic pop of "Senses on Fire" — which detonates into an epic break with a tsunami of electronic keyboards — and for the rhythm section of "Runaway Raindrop", which edges toward trip-hop with almost industrial outbursts and jazzy passages.

The best track among the nine is "People Are So Unpredictable (There's No Bliss Like Home)", a rainbow of magnificent sounds (thanks to the meticulous production, which the whole band worked on alongside the usual Fridmann); "Dream Of A Young Girl As A Flower" is the album's second masterpiece, a track so intricately arranged it feels like a suite: its classically-tinged opening harks back to the baroque flourishes of past records, but the sly electronic groove is something entirely new, its grit upending the sublime surges of strings, with a crystal-clear guitar awash in delay closing everything out with sweet feedback.

"Faraway From Cars" is another gem of poetry, its atmosphere suspended in a void, built from horns, a handclapping rhythm and celestial harmonies, while "A Squirrel And I" is the most electronic track, with guitar pushed into the background.

A beautiful record, fresh and tightly focused, a necessary comeback for a band that can rightfully be called a cornerstone of contemporary rock. A new album, "Strange Attractor" — the continuation of "Snowflake Midnight" — is due by the end of September, and will be available as a free download from Mercury Rev's official website by signing up to their mailing list.

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07/09/2008