Performer Notes
- Mercury Rev: Jonathan Donahue (vocals, acoustic guitar, chamberlin); Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiack (vocals, guitar, woodwinds); Suzanne Thorpe (flute); Dave Fridmann (piano, Mellotron, bass, background vocals); Adam Snyder (Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron, Hammond B-3 organ); Jimmy Chambers (harpsichord, clavinet, drums).
- Additional personnel: Amy Helm, Marie Spinosa, Mary Gavazzi Fridmann (vocals); Garrett James Uhlenbrock (slide guitar); Rachel Handman (violin); Garth Hudson (alto & tenor saxophones); Matt Jordan (flugelhorn); Jim Burgess (trombone); Aaron Hurwitz (piano); Scott Pettito (acoustic & electric basses); Jeff Mercel, Levon Helm (drums); Joel Eckhouse (bowed saw).
- Engineers include: Dave Fridmann, Jonathan Donahue, Aaron Hurwitz.
- This version of DESERTER'S SONGS is a limited edition, numbered, letterpressed and specially packaged CD.
- Mercury Rev: Jonathan Donahue (vocals, acoustic guitar, chamberlin); Grasshopper (vocals, guitar, woodwinds); Jimy Chambers (harpsichord, clavinet, drums); Suzanne Thorpe (flute); Dave Fridmann (piano, Mellotron, bass, background vocals); Adam Snyder (Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron, Hammond B-3 organ).
- Additional personnel: Amy Helm, Marie Spinosa, Mary Gavazzi Fridmann (vocals); Garrett James Uhlenbrock (slide guitar); Rachel Handman (violin); Garth Hudson (alto & tenor saxophones); Matt Jordan (flugelhorn); Jim Burgess (trombone); Aaron Hurwitz (piano); Scott Pettito (acoustic & electric basses); Jeff Mercel, Levon Helm (drums); Joel Eckhouse (bowed saw).
- Engineers: Dave Friddmann, Jonathan Donahue, Aaron Hurwitz.
- A touching, majestic gem of a record, DESERTER'S SONGS raises the bar not just for Mercury Rev themselves, but orchestrated pop in general. There's a timelessness to both the compositions and the arrangements here. Grand sonic visions are realized with horns, keyboards, strings, even a bowed saw! No matter how big the sound gets, though, it's all carefully controlled, and the cinematic scope enhances the songs, rather than obscuring them. Simple--but never blunt--lyrics benefit from an infectious melodicism that speaks to the pop songcraft skills Mercury Rev has mastered. The sweeping scale of DESERTER'S SONGS never denies the small, intimate pleasures that pop up from song to song, as the band combines psychedelia, '60s pop, Flaming Lips-ish indie rock and a homey folk-rock sound (the Band's Garth Hudson and Levon Helm even appear here) for a masterpiece of epic proportions.
Professional Reviews
Spin (12/98, pp.184-185) - 8 (out of 10) - "...It's an album of shameless good-byes: to Manhattan, to love, and (most painfully) to not giving a shit. Successfully repressing his Sonic Youth tics, Donahue starts with goofy, SMILE-era Beach Boys and heaps on even thicker strata of strings and brass than SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE..."
Spin (12/98, pp.184-185) - 8 (out of 10) - "...It's an album of shameless good-byes: to Manhattan, to love, and (most painfully) to not giving a shit. Successfully repressing his Sonic Youth tics, Donahue starts with goofy, SMILE-era Beach Boys and heaps on even thicker strata of strings and brass than SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE..."
Entertainment Weekly (9/25/98, p.107) - "...their fourth effort feels like a watershed, the point where their heady mix of orchestral pop, roots rock, psychedlia, prog, choral, and chamber music finally crystallizes into something special and damn near ineffable..." - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (9/25/98, p.107) - "...their fourth effort feels like a watershed, the point where their heady mix of orchestral pop, roots rock, psychedlia, prog, choral, and chamber music finally crystallizes into something special and damn near ineffable..." - Rating: A-
Q (10/01, p.59) - Ranked #30 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime"
Q (12/99, p.100) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
The Wire (1/99, p.27) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year [1998]"
Mojo (Publisher) (p.63) - Ranked #30 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "The results were rhapsodic: bowed saw symphonies and the ineffable 'Holes', a fantastical elegy to magic and loss."
