How Does That Old Song Go?: Deserter’s Songs at 25
I can’t think of many other such drastic changes in direction that a band has taken in modern guitar/rock music. Maybe Johnny Cash with his American Recordings series. Maybe. Donahue has said that playing in the early days of Mercury Rev was like being in the middle of a whirlpool, but the waters of Deserter’s Songs are calmer, and deeper. It’s an album made by a band with nothing more to lose. They made it thinking that no one would hear it except themselves.
Richard Skinner celebrates Mercury Rev‘s Deserter’s Songs.