Description
Stargazing Brooklyn noise-rock cosmonauts Upper Wilds - the power-trio led by Parts & Labor co-founder Dan Friel - return with another set of lean anthems filtered through a flamethrower. Their speediest, most explosive album yet, Mercury, is a meditation on death, with Friel expounding on his brush with skin cancer, climate change, funerals, Henry Kissinger, and a world seemingly on fire. Buoyed by recent tours with acts like Pelican, Uniform, Psychic Graveyard and Savak, the trio's increased speed is met with a precision that gives every hairpin turn more wallop.Mercury's molten, non-stop riffing is captured with grit and punch by engineer Travis Harrison (Guided By Voices, The Men) and is bolstered by longtime collaborator/saxophonist and fellow-New York mainstay Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) and vocalist Erin Dawson of LA-based experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Jason Binnick's basslines shine brighter than before dancing in tandem with Friel's guitar licks on "Death Song #3" and bringing equal parts melody and thunderous weight to "Green-Wood Cemetery." Jeff Ottenbacher's drumming oscillates between machine gun fills and sledge hammer pounding, giving each riff more momentum and bite.Upper Wilds' space-rock adventures through their recent albums Mars, Venus, & Jupiter came replete with stories of the heavens and humanity alike. On this fourth installment, the closest planet to the sun, things take a darker turn. The small, barren planet Mercury was named after the gods' speedy messenger and guide to the underworld, and the album syphons Upper Wilds' fuzz-pop aesthetics into concise, scorched anthems about the brevity and fragility of life with the ferocity of a band playing on the edge of extinction.
Tracklist:
- Mercury
- Fever
- Death Song #3
- Burning Bright
- Reaper
- Green-Wood Cemetery
- Timekeeper
- Dark Road
- Hellfire
- Dying Star
*** Indie Exclusive ***
UPC: 790377065916
Label: Thrill Jockey
Release Date: 8.28.26
Format: Vinyl
![the album cover for Upper Wilds - Mercury [Indie Exclusive] Metallic Silver [Colored Vinyl] (Slv) [Indie Exclusive]](http://tumbleweedsct.com/cdn/shop/files/4519775-3611272.jpg?v=1781109814)
![the album cover for Upper Wilds - Mercury [Indie Exclusive] Metallic Silver [Colored Vinyl] (Slv) [Indie Exclusive]](http://tumbleweedsct.com/cdn/shop/files/4519775-3611272.jpg?crop=center&height=430&v=1781109814&width=310)