Mercy River
Climbing
Big Galaxy
An album of emotional pop songs carefully crafted for thinking people. While the majority of the tunes are concerned with the fragile intricacies of relationships between a man and a woman (“Not Just Anyone” – dealing with failure; “Pictures Are Torn” – picking up the pieces; “Need” – having someone to rely on, etc.) “Patch of Green” is an impressive bit of tree-hugging.
“Patch of Green” points the melancholy finger of shame at “us” for paving the earth with reckless abandon. Erecting cities with negative regard for the environment and ignoring the ethics of such are called “atrocities” by Mercy River, which if you look at the big picture of things is a pretty good label. A sense of/for history also stands out in their songs as a thematic element. In “Patch of Green,” the lyrics “Can we bear witness to our own demise, can we wipe the years from/ From the younger lives…We can’t comprehend these atrocities [that] happened right here in front of our face…” In other words, we should be applying all the knowledge gained from the developers’ rampages. There’s the song “History,” a sad tune about personal frustration, as well as “Another Day Goes by,” another one that looks to the past for lessons. Lessons about screwed-up relationships that just don’t seem to sink through. A good one for fans of pop sadness and reflection.
Big Galaxy Records, P.O. Box 33, Marlton, NJ 08053; http://www.mercyriver.com
