May 8, 1999

Mercury Rev : Opus 40

A crescendous reverie of a song, a blissed-out hymn to an altered state of mind. Head-spinning images

This is the kind of record you can imagine Super Furries making at some point in the future. A crescendous reverie of a
song,
a blissed-out hymn to an altered state of mind. Head-spinning
images
like "tears in waves, minds on fire... she tossed all night on a raging sea, woke up and climbed from a suicide machine".

Listen to all the fun with words you're missing out on by not singing, Mogwai! In truth, out of the context of the album, this sounds simply like a pleasantly surreal anthem about things slightly too heady to contemplate. But if that's what it takes to draw you into the unique vision of a band equally as ambitious as our Single Of The Week recipients, then even on those terms it's worth as much as any release this week.

Jim Wirth