{"product_id":"upper-wilds-mercury","title":"Upper Wilds - Mercury","description":"\u003cp\u003eStargazing Brooklyn noise-rock cosmonauts Upper Wilds — the power-trio led by Parts \u0026amp; 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, \u0026amp; 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey Records","offers":[{"title":"Metallic Silver Vinyl LP","offer_id":54542980940099,"sku":"RPT-25108","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0821\/1601\/8499\/files\/216234-upper-wilds-mercury.png?v=1781177845","url":"https:\/\/www.recordplant.co.uk\/products\/upper-wilds-mercury","provider":"Record Plant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}