Ready or not…
The Mercury Rev show at the recent Connect Festival had a lot of the hallmarks of a great Mercury Rev show but there was the feeling that it was getting a little bit samey, almost Mercury Rev by numbers. That quickly changed when new song ‘Senses on Fire’ was unleashed on the crowd and it was as if a bucket of water had been thrown out into the audience such was the jolt that woke everybody up.
Don’t let the sedate start to the record fool you, once the track bursts into action, its pulsating electronic rhythm and building vocals create a large sense of drama and tension. The slow build may not give front man Jonathan Donahue much chance to display his unique vocal delivery but you cannot fail to notice the guitar sounds of Grasshopper as the squalor in the background starts to crescendo.
“Ready or not here I come” may be an age old schoolchildren’s chant but there was something particularly warming and as it ushered in a final dash to the finish line of this track, it was very welcoming. It’s great to have Mercury Rev back, especially when they are on this sort of form.