Snowflake Midnight

世界中で絶大な人気を誇るMERCURY REVがスタジオ作品としては7作目となる、フル･アルバムを完成させた。約3年振りとなる今作は、91 年にリリースされた記念すべきデビュー･アルバム『YERSELF IS STEAM』、また彼等の人気を決定付けた4 作目『DESERTER'S SOMGS』を凌ぐスリリングな仕上がり。エレクトロニクスを大胆に取り入れた今作は、20 年近いキャリアを誇るMERCURY REV の新境地。前作『THE SECRET MIGRATION』で辿り着いたドラマティックな世界から更に一歩踏み込んだ、美しく崇高な世界観。

The Wire - "[I]t's an album about the beauty and perishability of this life, at once monumental and evanescent in feel....It's pop, but pop from a faraway, better and unreachable place." Alternative Press - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's as dreamy as Mercury Rev have ever sounded; its largely electronic soundscapes suggesting a post-rave showing of some futuristic arthouse film." Mojo - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Seven albums into their shape-shifting career, this Buffalo, New York-formed outfit can still arouse the kind of wonder you felt as a child contemplating the star-speckled heavens." Spin - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] wonderfully skewed arrangements....A testament to the vision of a band that values 'sound over sense' and is still evolving nearly two decades on." Entertainment Weekly - "'Senses on Fire' is a twisted, hummable synth-pop classic." -- Grade: B Mojo - Ranked #22 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "[A]n album that lingered like a lucid dream." CMJ - "On their seventh studio album, alt-rock vets Mercury Rev blast their usual space-pop into an even more amorphous, post-apocalyptic realm."

Veteran space-pop-rockers Mercury Rev release their seventh studio album, 'Snowflake Midnight', after a three-year gap since 2005's 'The Secret Migration'. They retain their nuanced and heavily-produced sound, but with a thematic focus on more worldly subjects than previous records that takes in subtler lyrical constructs and a continuation of the band's development to a more poppy sound. Mercury Rev count among their ranks legendary indie producer Dave Fridmann (on bass since their formation), who has worked with such luminaries as Low and The Flaming Lips and is on production duties here.|

20年近いキャリアを誇る珠玉のサイケデリア・バンドが、およそ3年ぶりにニュー・アルバムを発表。ドラマティックな世界観を前作から踏襲しつつ、緻密なエレクトロニック・サウンドを大胆に投入することで音のビッグバンを引き起こしている。夜のしじまに飛散した蝶の鱗粉が音の粒となり、その上でセンティメンタルな歌声が叙情詩を紡ぐ。優しさと力強さを具現化した天空のシンフォニーに、身体ごと預けてしまいたい。
bounce (C)柴田 かずえ