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Album Club Special - Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs

Steve celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs by playing the album out in full. Listen along and join in the conversation via #6MusicAlbumCLub

Steve celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs by playing the album out in full. The album was the fourth album by Mercury Rev, released September 29, 1998 via V2 Records.

The success of this album was a surprise for the band. After the commercial failure of their previous album ‘See You on the Other Side’, which frontman Jonathan Donahue considered to be the band's best album, they decided to make one more record entirely for themselves. The band ignored commercial influences, and expected to split up shortly afterward. Surprisingly, ‘Deserter's Songs’ became their most successful album, bringing them popularity in the UK and Europe.

NME's John Mulvey gave the album 9/10: "With his relationships a tangled mess and his band fragmenting around him, 'Deserter's Songs' is Donahue's document of escape … music of shameless grandiosity that plays out personal crises on an enormous scale. Mercury Rev have always striven for this kind of deeply evocative sound, though their vision has often been obscured by billowing, unstable psychedelia. Now Donahue's gifts are clearer and less fractious. And the result? A modern classic.â€

The NME went onto name ‘Deserter’s Songs’ their album of the year for 1998.

Listen along and join in the conversation via #6MusicAlbumCLub

1 hour

Music Played

  • The Wannadies

    Hit

    • Indolent.
  • Mercury Rev

    Holes

    • V2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Tonight It Shows

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Endlessly

    • V2.
  • Mercury Rev

    I Collect Coins

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Opus 40

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Hudson Line

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    The Happy End (The Drunk Room)

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Goddess on a Hiway

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    The Funny Bird

    • V2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Pick Up If You're There

    • v2.
  • Mercury Rev

    Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp

    • v2.
  • Quantic & Rationale

    Unconditional

    • PIAS.

Broadcast

  • Wed 6 Sep 2023 18:00