MOJO WORKING
MERCURY REV DEFY THE ALGORITHM WITH LP 10
Around the horn: Mercury Rev in their Catskills studio (from left)
Jonathan Donahue, Marion Genser and Grasshopper.
“EACH VOCAL was recorded as a recitation standing on the banks of the Hudson River,” says Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev’s latest. “That’s why you can hear steamboats going by and dogs barking.” Back on radar after their 2019 re-imagining of Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete and their cosmic-psych side-project Harmony Rockets’ 2018 instrumental set Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos, the Rev go spoken-word on their new LP. “We are again out of step with a pop-orientated world, and that can lead to some sleepless nights,” notes Donahue. “We’re just being ourselves, but you worry you’ll get buried under the TikTok and Spotify avalanche.”