Mercury Rev - See You On the Other Side

After the eccentric and volatile frontman David Baker left in 1994, Mercury Rev went on with guitarist Jonathan Donahue taking over the lead vocals. Musically, a lot of the rough extreme experimentation was subdued in favor of lusher gentler arrangements that pretty much foresaw the direction Mercury Rev would take subsequently. At the same time, Rev retains the rock intensity and psychedelic wall of sound that characterized the Baker era band. Thus, See You On the Other Side is a transitional album and it's also the band's most underrated record. It didn't do well commercially and it is often overlooked in favor of both the first two albums and then the next one after that.

The album nonetheless is a very consistent, but an eclectic affair, combining spacy experimentation, rockouts, jazz touches and pocket symphony arrangement into a coherent forty minute whole. This is the brightest and happiest Rev album to date, as most of the tunes are in major key and feature many blissful melodies and friendly textures. There is one heavy punk-ish song called "Young Man's Stride", but mostly this is kindler, gentler Mercury Rev. "Everlasting Arm" and "Peaceful Night" refer to the retro sensibilities that Rev would subsequently explore, but there's also a fair bit of territory never covered before or since. "Sudden Ray of Hope" is a blissful tune with its sunshine harmonies and easy going feel matched with heavy rush of guitars a la Boces, but without the lunacy of that album. On this track, and in fact, most of the album, is where Suzanne Thorpe's flute contributions are really noticeable. A talented player, who shies away from show-off to contribute memorable and sweet countermelodies instead which serve to add another important layer in the mix. Two lengthy workouts, "Empire State" and "Racing The Tide", are psychedelic space-rock numbers tied to Boces in terms of intensity, but more melodic and multi-layered in approach. Overall not merely a transitional album, but a unique work that Rev never duplicated later, on its own right.