Pitchfork

Mercury Rev's plan to release two albums the same day-- one for money, one free-- to follow 2005's disappointing The Secret Migration raises a whole bunch of questions. Although it remains to be seen how exactly Snowflake Midnight (the one you'll have to pay for) will differ from the Strange Attractor (the one you'll be able to download for free), the first mp3 to circulate from either album suggests the influential upstate New York psych-rockers have changed course slightly. Yeah, Snowflake Midnight's "Senses on Fire" is still on the pastoral side, as the album title would imply, but it lets itself get carried away by krautrock's sense of propulsion. Crystalline synths and watery drip-drops make room for thrumming repetitions, distorted vocals, and lightly squealing guitars. "Ready or not, here I come," Jonathan Donahue sings. Getting ready shouldn't take too long-- this is closer to the shimmering Teutonic nostalgia of Cloudland Canyon's Lie in Light than Boces or Yerself Is Steam-- but it's more exciting than we've heard from the Rev in a while. 

MP3:> Mercury Rev: "Senses on Fire"
[from Snowflake Midnight; due 09/29/08 on Yep Roc]