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Jun 18, 2015 Mercury Rev By Christopher Roberts

Mercury Rev are back with a new album and have shared a song from it. The Light In You is due out September 18 via their new label, Bella Union. You can stream the first single and album opener, “The Queen of Swans,” below.

The Light In You is the first album to be recorded without producer Dave Fridmann behind the controls. Fridmann has long been a non-touring member of the band, producing their records while also being a much sought after producer by other bands (such as The Flaming Lips and MGMT). For this album, scheduling conflicts got in the way and the album was recorded in the Catskills by Mercury Rev’s own Jonathan Donahue and Sean Mackowiak (aka Grasshopper), along with engineer Scott Petito and bassist Anthony Molina. Donahue and Mackowiak also went to Paris to arrange backing vocals and record with Ken Stringfellow at his Son du Blé studios.

It’s been a long seven years since the band’s last album, 2008’s Snowflake Midnight. In that period Mackowiak became a father for the first time last year. Donahue also explains in a press release other reasons for the gap: “It was one of those otherworldly life sequences, when everything you think is solid turns molten. But also, when something is worth saying, it can take a long time to say it, rather than just blurt it out.”

Mercury Rev formed in 1991 and put out some great albums in the early to mid-‘90s, but it was 1998’s fourth album, Deserter’s Songs, that drew the band international acclaim and attention (especially in the U.K., where NME named it their album of the year). The album also had an influence on The Flaming Lips’ breakthrough album, The Soft Bulletin, which was also produced by Dave Fridmann in his Tarbox Road studios at the same time and was released a year after Deserter’s Songs. Donahue was also briefly The Flaming Lips’ second guitarist in the late ‘80s. Following Deserter’s Songs, the band released All Is Dream in 2001 (it actually came out in America on 9/11), 2005’s The Secret Migration, and 2008’s Snowflake Midnight.

Check out “The Queen of Swans” below, followed by The Light In You‘s tracklist and the band’s upcoming European tour dates (some U.S. ones will be announced soon).

The Light In You Tracklist:

The Queen Of Swans

Amelie

You’ve Gone With So Little For So Long

Central Park East

Emotional Freefall

Coming Up For Air

Autumn’s In The Air

Are You Ready?

Sunflower

Moth Light

Rainy Day Record

Mercury Rev Tour Dates:

Friday 18 September - TILBURG - Incubate Festival

Sunday 4 October - LEEDS - Brudenell Social Club

Monday 5 October - BRISTOL - Trinity

Friday 6 November - COPENHAGEN - DR Studio 2

Sunday 8 November - BRUSSELS - Botanique Orangerie

Monday 9 November - KOLN - Studio 672

Wednesday 11 November - BERLIN - Postbahnhof

Friday 13 November - ZAGREB - Lauba

Saturday 14 November - RAVENNA - Bronson

Sunday 15 November - MUNICH - Kranhalle

Monday 16 November - PARIS - Alhambra

Tuesday 17 November - BRIGHTON - Komedia

Thursday 19 November - GATESHEAD - The Sage

Friday 20 November - GLASGOW - Art School

Sunday 22 November- DUBLIN - Button Factory

Monday 23 November - MANCHESTER - RNCM

Tuesday 24 November - LONDON - Oval Space