At the time of writing this, My Mercury may have to postpone the launch of Starship 3000 in London because lots of other things are being launched in the Middle East right now. Their drummer is stranded in Australia while Dubai airport is experiencing some difficulties. The irony is that My Mercury specialise in making music that will transport you from our collective modern misery into a world of joy and wonder.
If, like me, you pine for Noah and the Whale (plus Laura Marling), then have no fear – nu twee is here. Starship 3000 is often as giddy as a toddler gobbling Haribo while riding a carousel. On first track ‘Karaoke Friday’, there’s a key change that Westlife would have vetoed for being too uplifting. “Karaoke Friday / Swim on Saturday” – sounds fun. Michael Leger and Xanthe Wilkins continue joint vocal duties on ‘EWR (Newark Liberty)’, which is Arcade Fire without an ounce of cynicism. A free parking spot is referenced as if it’s a painting in The Louvre.
‘Shoulder’ begins like a preamble to a Wicker Man-like sacrifice. Michael goes solo while the rest of the band create a scratchy, tetchy backdrop. On title track ‘Starship 3000’, we hear about “a girl who thought love explained everything,” and the track morphs into a ‘Hey Jude’-like singalong. If Kathryn Williams and Damien Rice collaborated, would they create something as lovely as ‘Fourteen Hours’? It’s one of those songs you’ll swear you’ve heard before. It’s as welcome and as comforting as the “orange bouquet of flowers” it mentions, and you’ll want to listen to it while sitting in a bay window with a spectacular view.
‘The Shadows’ was released last month as the final single from the album. “The sun overwhelms and blurs everything / The moon shows your shoulder and jaws so well,” Michael and Xanthe sing over acoustic guitar and sprinklings of violin, entranced by beauty and their ability to capture it. My Mercury are not always like this. ‘I’m Not Always Like This’ gets very loud indeed, albeit it ends as softly as a puppy landing on a beanbag (“Please take me on your errands today.”) ‘Orange Morning’ recalls a trip to Reno. “You gave me all the rainbow’s colours / Like the spin of a gambling wheel.” Has there ever been such a wonderfully incongruous coupling of poetry and vice?
‘Heather’ is in thrall to landscape as much as love – a song for the car: top down, heather hanging from the mirror, sensible speed. A wrestler/ninja “Huh!” signals a tempo change on ‘Almost Ice’, and the mood becomes horses galloping towards a little house on the prairie. “Three DVDs / Alien v. Predator / Trophy on the mantel / Ping-pong downstairs” – youth hostel simplicity. ‘Tangerine’ sounds like criminally under-famous Norwegian electro-pop singer Sigrid taking Adrienne Lenker’s place in Big Thief. Final track ‘Before’ sounds like a Noah and the Whale song based on the chords from ‘Everybody Hurts’. As I wrote in my review of the single last October, it manages to be both maudlin and ecstatic in a ‘Mr Brightside’ way.
But the emphasis with Starship 3000 is on the ecstatic – the non-showy, utterly-unlike-a-spaceship joy of being in love and loving life. While psychopaths turn schools and hospitals into ash for cash, we can seek refuge in quiet moments and pretend we live on planet My Mercury.
Starship 3000 is out now via Bandcamp
My Mercury are due to perform at the Ivy House in South London on 17th March.
My Mercury: Bandcamp | Instagram
Review by Neil Laurenson
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