The Secret Migration

For a band so widely recognized as being wild-eyed experimentalists, Mercury Rev have refined their songwriting down to a definite formula. Ever since 1998’s enchanting Deserter’s Songs, it's been swirling, sugary melodies, insistent rhythms, and Jonathan Donohue’s childlike voice amid trippy atmospherics. The Secret Migration doesn’t stray from the formula; it refines it further. Guitars—once the Rev’s chief weapon—play a supporting role here. A piano sways forlornly around a nearly danceable beat on “Vermillion”; the Phil Spector–ish “In a Funny Way” works strings, woodwinds, dive-bombing guitar, twinkling glockenspiel, and the haunting whirr of a Theremin into a woozy wall of sound. But the songs are surprisingly tight. At the moment you might expect the band to descend into a noodley bridge, it often draws songs to a close instead. Fans of 12-minute epics about ancient mariners or the autumnal equinox will be bummed, but the rest of us who hate Phish are psyched.