Track Listing

1. Holes
2. Tonite It Shows
3. Endlessly
4. I Collect Coins
5. Opus 40
6. Hudson Line
7. The Happy End (The Drunk Room)
8. Goddess On A Highway
9. The Funny Bird
10. Pick Up If You're There
11. Delta Sam Bottleneck Stomp
12. Track 12

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33669 in Music
• Released on: 1998-09-29
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
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 realised 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. V2.

Amazon.com's Best of 1998
For 1998, Mercury Rev did something completely different: they shunned the psychedelic rock of their previous ways and went for baroque. Literally. On Deserter's Songs, bowed saw plays as prominent a role as guitar, and most of the songs are ballads, not anthems. There's a tender, folksy quality here that was missing in the group's previous (albeit also great) recordings. Mercury Rev have always been difficult to classify; yet on this album they make the pigeonholing even more difficult. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com
Years before the slacker-minstral chic of the Elephant Six Collective (Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, et al.) strummed their way into left-of-the-dial fame, Mercury Rev were busy composing their own psychedelic soundtracks for nothing in particular. It seems as though we've heard it all before: lo-fi is predictable, the musical saw is downright ubiquitous (yeah, it shows up on Deserter's Songs) in indie rock, and the mellotron's chords are all too common. Yet despite the trendy instrumentation, Deserter's Songs is anything but predictable. "Tonite It Shows" is a mysterious lullaby, "Opus 40" is trippy keyboard sing-along, and "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" has more Stereolab pop than Son House Delta blues. It's one of Mercury Rev's most unique and consistent efforts. A subdued yet rewarding trip. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

I knew Mercury Rev. You, sir, are no Mercury Rev.
What is going on here? Why is this album praised to the ends of the earth? Is it a grand conspiracy? Are people just afraid to disagree with the consensus? Is the world filled with people who just simply have awful taste when it comes to music?

This record isn't terrible. But it's so utterly forgettable in every way that a.) I'm confounded at how it's _still_ lauded as Mercury Rev's "artistic peak" by the masses, and b.) I'm outraged that it's even considered marginally acceptable when compared to Rev's previous three albums: the brilliant debut Yerself is Steam, the good but slight misstep Boces, and finally, the glorious magnum opus, See You on the Other Side. All flawed, but still inspiring, creative, uplifting, and above all, interesting listens. Deserter's Songs is none of these things.

I actually have no idea if Mercury Rev recovered from this dull expose, as I was so disappointed, I lost all interest in what had previously been one of my favorite bands, and haven't heard any of their subsequent material.

Stay away from this album. Far, far away.

Broadway filtered through a Tettix Wave Accumulator (patent pending)
Pretty much every minute detail that can be said about this album has been previously posted, so I will say this for those already familiar with Mercury Rev but have not heard this album:

Deserter's Songs is what happens when you ask Mercury Rev to compose a soundtrack to a Broadway musical. Its use of a full band and strings, odd studio trickery, bowed saws, and epic and sometimes gratuitous, melodramatic moments create a whimsical, musical journey. From the noirish "Holes" which starts the album to the chipper closer, "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp," you can almost picture the red curtain going down while Mercury Rev waves goodbye on stage.

This sort of sound may or may not appeal to fans of older Mercury Rev. To me, its just another progression in Mercury Rev's ever-changing personnel and it sounds wonderful. For maximum aural satisfaction, however, I suggest listening to this album all the way through, as this is a concept album, and its effect would be greatly undermined by selecting random tracks.

Masterpiece, with Saw
From the first notes of this record you know that you are listening to something new and unique, to wit, a saw. Who else has put the saw to such exquisite use in popular music? OPUS 40 is a rock sculpture near Woodstock, NY, created by a sole man over a lifetime's work in his backyard. My girlfriend took me to that place ten years ago. How nice to see it remembered here in a song by the same name. That is one of the more traditional songs on this record, but I'm drawn to the odder ones upon repeated listenings. Impossible to categorize, unique, strangely affecting, this is the band's breakout record and masterpiece, although "Secret Migration" comes close.