Deserter's Songs is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Consider first the enigma, that of Mercury Rev itself. Beginning its existence in 1991 as a seemingly random congregation of mad- genius musicians, Mercury Rev fashioned two spotty yet brilliant albums (Yerself Is Steam and Boces) from equal parts Flaming Lips- style noisefuck psychedelia and tweaked New York hipsterism. After head goon David Baker left the band in 1994, guitarist Jonathan Donahue took the helm and guided Mercury Rev toward the more classic sounds of Tin Pan Alley. 1995's See You On The Other Side was both their strangest and most cohesive work yet, a Gershwin musical on acid; they retained their sonic kitchen sink aesthetic while toning down the gratuitous noise splurges a bit.

The mystery, then, is how Mercury Rev, a band who got the plug pulled on them during 1993's Lollapalooza tour because they were too loud, could possibly make an album like Deserter's Songs. The first three tracks sound like nothing they've ever done before-- gentle, starry- eyed melodies with a surprising amount of orchestral stateliness. While See You On The Other Side was sparkly and beautiful, their symphonic appropriations seemed a bit artificial at times; in contrast, Deserter's Songs sounds like they're channeling lounge standards straight from heaven, pure and natural.

Only after several listens do the ghosts of Mercury Rev past start to appear: the hallucinatory Syd Barrett- like lyrics, Suzanne Thorpe's everpresent flute, and the occasional weird noises that initially don't sound all that weird, like a musical saw or a harp. As Deserter's Songs progresses, Mercury Rev slowly turns up the volume but never gets self- indulgently noisy; the dark, swirling guitars on "Goddess On A Hiway" and "The Funny Bird" veer sharply off into more psychedelic territory, while "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" chugs along on the strength of a loopy slide- guitar riff.

The riddle that remains is this: How good is Deserter's Songs, exactly? Comparisons to past albums are mostly worthless, since Mercury Rev have changed so much since their inception. On its own merits, Deserter's Songs is a beautiful piece of work that sounds at once classic and novel. It's an astonishingly mature album by a band we never expected to mature, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

-Nick Mirov