Mercury Rev - The Hum Is Coming From Her (Album Review)

 

Mercury Rev - The Hum Is Coming From Her

(1993)


My copy: 1993 press by Columbia.


Of all the tracks to repurpose as a single from 1993’s Boces, finale “Girlfren” is certainly an odd choice. The song is renamed here, though it is the same strangely haunting bout of  dixieland-gone-surrealist by way of David Baker’s affected vocal moans. The flute bleeds into the background noise before the vocals cease, leaving us with bending strings. The real worth in this single comes in the B-side “So There” which features a poem reading from then Buffalo University professor Robert Creeley. The music is harrowing ambiance tossed in-between elated pitches of swing-jazz, though the best moments are near the end when everything begins to reverberate and topple over into a mess of psychedelic colors. The poem itself keeps listeners focused in, and Creeley’s speaking is echoed and loudened for effect, serving as the centerpiece of the experiment. 

The Hum Is Coming From Her is a weird little package, but for fans of early Mercury Rev, it is very much worth the three, maybe five dollars it typically sells for. I suppose the overestimation of “Girlfren’s” selling power led to low sales of this 10” in stores, but one butt-rocker’s trash is another man’s treasure.

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