THE SECRET MIGRATION

"The Secret Migration" is the 6th full-length studio album by US alternative rock act Mercury Rev. The album was released through V2 Records in January 2005 . It was recorded at Six Hours Studios, Tarbox Observatory and produced by Dave Friedmann (who also functions as the band´s bass player).

The music style pretty much follows the same formula as on the previous album "All is Dream (2001)" which is alternative rock with a slight psychadelic touch. The music is well written and predominantly vers/chorus structured and relatively catchy, but not necessarity instantly memorable. The regular rock instrumentation is as always spiced up with psychadelic sounds and effects but in a more restrained manner compared to earlier albums by the band. Jonathan Donahue is not an especially skilled singer but his fragile and pleasant vocal style is relatively personal. The musicianship is as always on a high level and the sound production is professional and well sounding.

"The Secret Migration" is a concept album with psychadelic themes on Mother Nature. You can easily listen to the album without much concern for the concept though. I think the album has got a very british sound which is a bit unusual for an American bands but Mercury Rev has always had a very obvious Beatles influence in their music (at least from "See You On The Other Side (1995)" onwards). So it´s really not that strange if they sound a bit British.

Upon conclusion "The Secret Migration" is a fairly good quality album by Mercury Rev but to my ears it doesn´t sound as inspired as the band´s best previous output ("See You On The Other Side (1995)" and "Deserter's Songs (1998)"). The more average quality level of music featured on "All is Dream (2001)" is unfortunately continued here and I can´t rate the album with more than a 3 star (60%) rating.