Mercury Rev has delivered their first original material album in nine years with Born Horses. The album is dense, cinematic, orchestral-based pop mixed with ambient sounds and colored by breathy, spoken-word vocals throughout.
The group currently consists of long-time member singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue and multi-instrumentalist Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak and newcomers Jesse Chandler on piano and keyboardist Marion Genser. Things are fluid and sedated, with glowing musical textures coursing throughout the album’s eight tracks.
Using a swelling musical style and ambient undertones, the group focuses on swirling, drifting efforts like “Ancient Love” and “Your Hammer, My Heart,” which deploy sax, deep bass, piano, and percussion with ease. Donahue’s lyrics are poetic and insightful; however, his completely spoken-word tone can wear a bit thin over the full album. A bit of the band’s past weirdness is also gone, yet the mature, dense musical offerings are delightful.
The two most extended efforts on Born Horses find the band shifting into more jazz-based sounds with great success. “Mood Swings” starts the record by dropping the listener into a jazz conversation highlighted by trumpet, chimes, and violins. The drumming here is a highlight, as is the percussion on “Everything I Thought I Had Lost,” which uses layers of skittering sounds and strings in a film noir-inspired style.
“Patterns” goes big and dramatic with kettle drums, while “A Bird Of No Address” is some of the strongest orchestral pop on the record, upbeat with whispered prayers and gorgeous piano work. Album closer “There’s Always Been A Bird In Me” shifts gears a touch with a pulsing, new wave-inspired beat, wrapping up the record on a light rock note.
Another exciting addition to the long-running band’s catalog, Born Horses finds the Mercury Rev stretching out and evolving over 35 years into their career.
