Following his departure after 1993’s second album Boces, guitarist Jonathan Donahue, he of the ravaged-choirboy vocals, assumed greater creative control, directing Mercury Rev towards a more beatific kind of music that imagined The Beach Boys’ Smile if Brian Wilson was as into distortion as he was divine melody. Much of Mercury Rev’s reputation for out-there artistry was due to the musicians’ frictional relationships, and the presence of totemic frontman David Baker and his believable impersonation of a lunatic asylum escapee. “Their recordings are curious and highly creative.” “My interest in Mercury Rev is down to Dave Fridmann’s great production methods,” says fan David Longdon of Big Big Train. Their sounds were aided by long-standing producer Dave Fridmann.
There was also the single Car Wash Hair, bearing sounds from the outer limits of psychedelic experimentation, notably on an untitled ‘hidden’ fourth track comprising 30 minutes of oscillating sine waves, looped thrash guitar, conversations with mental patients and blood-curdling screams.
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