Twenty years after it was released Mercury Rev are re-leasing The Secret Migration on double vinyl in beautiful artwork, befitting the pastoral splendour of this magical gem. Mercury Rev are rather an enigma with their unpredictability making them difficult to categorize. Mercury formed in Buffalo, New York in 1989, and made the Catskill Mountains their home as they have explored their unique musical world. They continue to do so to this day with the recent rather jazzy psychedelia of their Born Horses album – one never quite knows in what direction they will go. Their off kilter, left field alternative rock early 90’s albums, Boces and See You on the Other Side, prepared no-one for their iconic breakthrough 1998 album Deserter’s Songs, which captured the imagination and hearts of many with its seductively quirky Americana. It was declared ‘Album of the Year’ by the renowned NME music publication. They followed that with the darker and elaborately orchestrated All is Dream in 2001, which featured the sublime The Dark is Rising and the wide screen Hercules. In 2005 The Secret Migration received mystifyingly mixed reviews at the time, with some reviewers seemingly not comfortable with their change of direction to more lushly pastoral mythic soundscapes… this re-release gives us the opportunity to re-appraise this under-appreciated album.
The album starts mysteriously on an eerie synth and the splashes open on a bed of gently throbbing bass and tinkling piano. Grasshopper’s weird, excoriating guitar swoops spectrally in the background and Jonathan Donahue sums up the whole album with:
I’ll tell you a secret, I’ll sell you a secret for a song’
This song characterises the whole album – shimmering with sparkling beauty tinged with darkness. Across Yer Ocean starts with Donohue’s characteristic plaintive high register vocals over a lightly tripping piano and synth before the piece rolls along fittingly on waves of percussion, subtle synths and flowing bass. The enchantment continues on the suitably shimmering Diamonds, Donohue’s delicate vocals riding on a whimsical keyboard. One can sort of understand the reservations of some of those early reviewers as this was a Mercury Rev of such fragility and whimsy that they had never before experienced. Clearly some could not join them on that ride, but for some it was a delight at the time and remains a gorgeous dive into an intoxicating world of sparkling magic and some sinister shadows. This seems most evident on Black Forest (Lorelei), which resonates with musical sorcery and an ‘other worldly’ atmosphere. We are all now walking through a full-on fairy tale world of myth, tinged with dark sensuality, with lines such as:
If I was a White Horse, and offered you a ride through a Black Forest’
This is one of the more ambitious songs which flowers into a dreamlike instrumental passage as the band flow along and Grasshopper weaves his guitar wand, casting softly keening spells, until a gentle come down – a real highlight of the album.
The next two tracks are more straightforward with Vermillion’s more insistent rhythm framing a plea for love preceding the cascading joyfulness of the short but sweet In the Wilderness. In a Funny Way migrates us unexpectedly into a ‘Wall of Sound’ pioneered by Phil Spector with a distinctive snare drum and soprano background vocals by Mary Gavassi Fridman. Grasshopper’s jangling guitars and the accompanying sweeping strings transport this song onto another level. This is a deceptive piece shining with sunny joyful optimism, but with a darker unsettling subtext:
But In a Funny Way she reminds you of the Fall.’
There is a more measured, melancholic appeal to My Love with a delicate guitar and vocal beginning. The whole rather sonorous track has a regretful, late night feel before it fades away on a mournful organ note, reflecting the sorrow which inspired the song. That sad atmosphere is soothingly dispelled by the brief but sparkling prayer like chant of Moving On, glistening with lovely harmony vocals. There is rather a sense of ‘same-ness’ with The Climbing Rose as we have trodden down this drifting and rather twee musical path repeatedly on this album – even an oyster needs some grit around which to form. Therefore, it is pleasing to hear, Arise rumbling in on a splendid bass and deft drumming from Jeff Mercel. Grasshopper’s eerily floating guitars fill the skies and Donohue’s voice surfs along on a torrent of passion. This is the storm before the calm and the pinnacle of the album – the resplendent joy which is First Time Mother’s Joy (Flying). Mercel’s softly lilting piano accompanies Donohue’s fragile voice describing the joy of new parenthood in a delightful ear-worm melody which will run around your head all day long. This is a gorgeously warm and uplifting song, shining with such pure love. Maybe some reviewers ‘back in the day’ found it overly saccharine, but for this listener it simply evokes happiness and wonder. Down Poured the Heavens is the brief calm, gentle coda to a special album – a short hymn of praise to new-born life. One would have a hard heart not to be moved by the underlying emotions and their delightful almost pure pop style in which Mercury Rev evoked those feelings.
The additional songs on the second vinyl LP are made up of B-Sides and out takes, many of which are cover versions. Some of them are more in a country style such as their version of Bobby Charles’ Tennessee Blues and they render a lovely take on the maestro of soft pop song writer, Paul Williams’ I Never had it so Good. They also do fine versions of two Paul Westerberg songs Good Day, which unusually features Grasshopper on rather breathy vocals, and Androgynous, originally sung by The Replacements. The main highlight of the additional songs is their banjo led jaunt through Daniel Johnston’s Blue Clouds, over which they sprinkle their inimitable musical fairy dust. In truth there’s a reason most of these songs were B-Sides or out-takes, but it is interesting to hear them in looser and more rustic style. On the whole the main album will enchant most listeners far more than these curios, but they are worth hearing.
Is it worth getting this re-release?
Well, Cherry Red Records had released a splendid 5-disc deluxe CD edition of this album in 2020 which includes these tracks, along with a live disc and a bonus disc of their soundtrack to the movie ‘Hello Blackbird’, so this is not a release characterised by new discoveries.
However, the simple answer if you have never heard The Secret Migration before is a resounding ‘Yes’. Of course, the other added attraction of this latest release, even if you have previous CD versions of this album, is the double ‘vinyl experience’ in the gorgeous packaging / artwork so some may feel attracted to also owning this in glorious vinyl format.
Following the eccentric splendour of their breakthrough album Deserter’s Songs and the cinematic grandeur of All is Dream, it is justifiable to consider The Secret Migration as the third in arguably the finest triptych of albums released by Mercury Rev. Jonathan Donohue has stated “Alchemy has always frothed below the surface in what we’ve done, but it was ‘The Secret Migration’, lyrically and musically, that saw its whitecap”.
Filled with beautiful but fragile sounds conveying enchanting but sometimes shadowy images The Secret Migration is definitely worth discovering or even re-discovering in an attractive presentation. Join Mercury Rev on their ‘dark country ride’ and open your heart and experience the magic of this joyous album.
TRACK LISTING
LP 1: Side A
01. Secret For A Song (4:01)
02. Across Yer Ocean (3:20)
03. Diamonds (3:52)
04. Black Forest (Lorelei) (4:46)
05. Vermillion (4:07)
06. In The Wilderness (2:32)
Side B
01. In A Funny Way (4:02)
02. My Love (4:15)
03. Moving On (1:20)
04. The Climbing Rose (3:19)
05. Arise (3:49)
06. First-Time Mother’s Joy (Flying) (3:32)
07. Down Poured The Heavens (1:39)
LP 2: Side C
01. Tennessee Blues (featuring Bonnie Anthony) (3:51)
02. Afraid (3:44)
03. Seagull (3:09)
04. Androgynous (2:57)
05. Mirror For A Bell (3:14)
06. Good Times Ahead (3:01)
07. I Never Had It So Good (featuring Bonnie Anthony) (3:56)
Side D
01. Blue Clouds (4:36)
02. Late Night Request (3:39)
03. A Season Of Poussin (4:30)
04. Good Day (4:38)
05. A Look At Brutis With His Knife (5:05)
Total Time – 84:34
MUSICIANS
Jonathan Donahue – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Grasshopper (Sean Machowiak) – Guitars
Jeff Mercel – Drums, Piano
Carlos Anthony Molina – Synthesizers
~ With:
Mary Gavassi Fridman – Soprano Vocals
Adam Peters – Performer (unspecified)
Adam Widoff – Performer (unspecified)
Rich Robinson – Performer (unspecified)
Bonnie Anthony – Backing Vocals
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: USA
Date of Release: 31st January 2025
DISCOGRAPHY
– Yerself is Steam (1991)
– Boces (1993)
– See You on the Other Side (1995)
– Deserter’s Songs (1998)
– All is Dream (2001)
– The Secret Migration (2005)
– The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991 – 2006 (Compilation) (2006)
– Hello Blackbird (Film Soundtrack) (2006)
– Snowflake Midnight (2008)
– The Light in You (2015)
– Bobby Gentry’s The Delta Sweete Revisited (2019)
– All is Dream (Deluxe Re-release 4 CD Edition) (2019)
– The Secret Migration (Deluxe Re-release 5 CD Edition) (2020)
– Born Horses (2024)
LINKS
Mercury Rev – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube |Instagram | Info at Cherry Red Records