Amazon.co.uk Review
Reverencing the seasons and the mysterious "unseen force behind the turning leaves",
The Secret Migration is not the work of practicing Druids but the sixth album from gliding American trio Mercury Rev, a band whose much-vaunted astral rock weightlessness (see the classic
Deserters Songs) has now touched down in the residual dark green undergrowth of Eden. Its a distant, magical place where dragonflies, apparently, are inclined to "offer you a ride".
Narcotic ambiguity aside, The Secret Migration is either a pretty nature travelogue gilded with breathless escapism or an eleventh hour ecological wake up call before The Man puts up the "Sold - Subject To Planning Permission" notice. More importantly, its an excellent "concept" record with the strident "In The Wilderness" and bittersweet Beatles-esque "First Time Mothers Joy" promising potential dividends beyond the groups established cult-band curtilage. A bewitched Jonathan Donahue sings with the explorative wonderment of a man wandering abroad through a pot-headed botanists midnight summer dream. Talk of swans, white horses and "dormant patient roots" becoming "childish shoots" lends The Secret Migration a fairytale folk quality respectfully redolent of Donovan but the soft psychedelic hues of Mercury Revs Arcadian canvas are entirely their own. Wistfully magnificent. --Kevin Maidment
CD Description
'The Secret Migration' is the fifth album from Mercury Rev and sees the band fine tune their dreamy psychedelic pop sound. Produced once again by Dave Fridmann, the album falls somewhere between the sounds of 1998's 'Deserter's Songs' and 2001's 'All Is Dream', mixing strings, synths, guitars, and Jonathan Donahue's rousing vocals.