Mercury Rev-See You On The Other Side (1995)
Artist: Mercury Rev
Catalog Number: OK 64362
Year of Release: 1995
Country and Year of Edition: US 1995
Sell Price: $2.57
Sell Date: 9/10/24
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold 7/20/24 NM/VG+ $3.96
Low: $1.50
Median: $2.99
Average: $3.18
High: $6.99
Current low price: $2.49
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 17
Have/Want: 443/43
Where Sold: Carson, CA
Time It Took To Sell: 12 years
Where and When Bought: record club? late 90's
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+
Sad To See It Go: No
Mercury Rev were a band I bought all their 90's records in the 90's, but this one was a bit under the radar for me. Yerself Is Steam came when The Flaming Lips had my favorite, In A Priest Driven Ambulance and the affiliation was enough for me to get it right when it came out on Rough Trade before they moved on to Columbia. In fact, I think I first heard of the band through Dave Dunbar, who was in the band Luca Brasi that I coincidentally wrote about the other day. Back then he was friends with I think Dave Friedman, or somebody in the Lips camp, so it was a known thing in Boston circa 1991 that Mercury Rev were something Flaming Lips related to check out. As Mercury Rev progressed throughout the 90's they seemed like an abstract major label band, pleasant enough but nothing to indicate that Pulitzer Prize winning Deserter's Songs that came out at the end of the decade.
I think I got See You On The Other Side brand new a few years after it came out but before Deserter's Songs. It left no impression on me at the time. I probably played it once and filed it away, but I don't even recall that act. I remember listening to Boces getting it for $3 the year of release and playing it on the radio, but this one was completely a new listening experience for me in 2024, close to 3 decades after release.
Now that I've given it a few listens a couple tracks were clear standouts. The one that made my ears perk up right away was "Racing The Tide" and the other one is "A Kiss From An Old Flame." The former has that melodic thing and the latter has the orchestral feel that were perfected on Deserter's Songs. There seems to be some sort of a transition here. For example, when I think of Boces, I can't remember any of the titles, but I think of "the long one that I liked that I played on the radio." This one seems closer to the "every songs a hit but I don't remember the titles" approach of Deserter's Songs.
Abstraction coming into formation, if that makes any sense.
Comments
Post a Comment